Samantha P. McDonald

Overview

Samantha McDonald is an experienced, client-focused real estate lawyer, concentrating on business and real estate property law. She represents a wide range of clients and matters, including buyers and sellers of commercial real estate, land use, zoning, and development matters, leasing, and surrounding property issues. Samantha represents a variety of clients, ranging from developers, nonprofits, manufacturers, retail, restaurants and educational institutions.

Samantha appreciates what clients value most, understanding that “getting the deal done is most important to the client.” She enjoys working with clients to resolve matters that people typically don’t have to deal with and can’t always assess on their own. She helps her clients navigate various situations, evaluate the types of risks and potential effects involved, and works with clients to achieve exactly what they want while protecting them.

Before Bowditch

Prior to joining the firm in 2018, Samantha focused her practice on business and real estate property law. She developed a specialty in evictions, but says she had her “foot in the door” with other practice areas as well. Prior to law school, Samantha worked as a paralegal for a solo practitioner doing real estate conveyancing.

Besides work

Samantha enjoys crossword puzzles, but in the warmer months, she likes to spend time in her perennial flower garden. “I like to play in the dirt – I’m a dirt lawyer.”

Affiliations

Co-Chair, Women’s Initiative, MSI Global Alliance
Board of Directors, Worcester Regional Research Bureau, Inc.
American Antiquarian Society
- Elected to membership, 2023
- Elected to Council of Trustees, 2024
Board of Trustees, New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill
Member Emerita, Leadership Council, Women’s Initiative of the United Way of Central Massachusetts
Corporator & Member of Audience Engagement Committee, Worcester Art Museum
Corporator & Member of Marketing Committee, Music Worcester
Corporator & Member of Tilton Scholarship Committee, Greater Worcester Community Foundation
Member, Wachusett Greenways Trust
Member, Real Estate Bar Association
Member, Worcester County Bar Association
Member, Women’s Bar Association

Board Chair Emerita/Development Committee Member, YOU Inc, Worcester
Board Member, The Commonwealth Department of Children and Families Worcester West
Chair, Financial Strategies Committee of the Women’s Initiative/Member, Steering Committee, Women’s Initiative of the United Way of Central Massachusetts
Member, American Bar Association – Environment, Energy & Resources and the Real Property, Trust & Estates Sections
Member, White Oak Land Trust
President, ArtsWorcester
Vice President of the Environmental Society, Suffolk University Law School

Honors

“Top Women of Law,” Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly (2023)
Selected as a member of Leadership Worcester 2016, a joint program of the Greater Worcester Community Foundation and the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce
Super Lawyers  “Rising Star” (2015-2019)
Recipient of the Pro Bono Publico Award from Community Legal Aid (2014)

Articles + Talks

Articles

“With commercial leases, the devils are in the details,” Worcester Business Journal, 2024
“10 things I know about … Sustainable development, part 2,” Worcester Business Journal, 2024
“10 things I know about … Sustainable development, part 1,” Worcester Business Journal, 2024
“COVID-19 Legal Impacts Far-Reaching for RE,” The Real Reporter, 2022
Authored the chapter on Powers of Attorney, Contributing author, “Crocker’s Notes on Common Forms” (10th ed., MCLE 2013), edited by Sydney F. Smithers, IV,” 2016

Talks

Strategies for Gifting Real Estate to Charitable Organizations, Estate and Business Planning Council of Worcester County, 2025
Adaptive Reuse and Housing Innovation, Worcester Business Journal’s Economic Forecast & Central Mass Real Estate Forum, 2025 (Moderator)
Annual Economic Development Summit: Developing for Climate Resiliency, Bowditch, 2023 (Moderator)
NEREJ & CCIM West of Boston CRE Summit, 2022
Real Estate Special Interest Group Meeting, MSI Annual International Conference, 2022
Investing in Worcester: A developers perspective, Worcester Business Journal, 2022 (Moderator)
COVID and Beyond: Nonprofit Innovation, Worcester Business Journal Webinar, 2021 (Moderator)
Civic Engagement and Your Career, Worcester County Bar Association, 2020
5th Annual Economic Development Summit: Transforming Main Street, Bowditch, 2019 (Moderator)
Becoming Ms. Worcester – Getting Involved in Your Community, Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Worcester Women’s Leadership Conference, 2019 (Moderator)
An Iconic Building Ready for the Next Chapter: Developing Union Station, Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Game Changers Business Conference & Expo, 2018 (Moderator)

Media Mentions

Samantha McDonald Interviewed on “The Chandler Chat,” WCCA-TV (2024)

Bar Admissions

Massachusetts
District Court of Massachusetts

Education

J.D., Suffolk University Law School
B.A., cum laude, Environmental Studies, Clark University

Experience

Real Estate

Assisted client with partial ownership interest in 15 pieces of property in two states, working with multiple heirs (including several trusts and multiple estates) to sell or transfer the properties. This required significant interaction with trust and estate counsel for both pre- and post-MUPC guidance for both trust administration and intestacy procedures.
Buyer in the purchase of a renewable fuel generation facility business and real property, including responding to significant undisclosed environmental issues
Seller in sale of real property where buyer breached contract, including tendering title and negotiating settlement
Buyer of real property from a municipality with a defective tax taking

Non-Profits

Identified potential zoning issue for a nonprofit that was under contract to sell a portion of its property that would have caused the remaining land to be unsalable and created a commercial condominium to enable the nonprofit to meet its contractual obligation while eliminating the zoning risk
Creating and advising non-profit corporations and obtaining tax-exempt status for them
Recipients of assets in cy pres cases, including required on-going reporting to the Attorney General
Quasi-municipal entity regarding regulatory requirements for the sale of land acquired by eminent domain
Non-profit in transferring all real property out of a trust owning its realty and dissolving the trust
Presentations to Boards of Directors regarding their duties