About April
April McDonald earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Delta State University in 2008 and a Juris Doctor from Mississippi College School of Law in 2011. Her undergraduate studies gave her grounding in writing and critical reading. Law school sharpened those skills and prepared her for practice in state courts.
She began her legal career in private practice. In 2011 she joined Morris Bart, Ltd. as an associate lawyer. The following year she moved into public service as a staff lawyer for the Mississippi Department of Human Services. Those early roles exposed her to both plaintiff- and defense-oriented environments and to the procedural demands of administrative and court work.
McDonald is admitted to practice in Mississippi and Alabama. She has been active in local and national professional organizations. Her memberships include the American Bar Association, the Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association, the Jackson County Young Lawyers Association and the Jackson County Bar Association. Within the Jackson County Bar Association she served as secretary from 2015 to 2016 and as vice president from 2016 to 2017. Those positions put her in the middle of bar events, continuing legal education efforts and local lawyer-to-lawyer coordination.
Her resume reflects a mix of governmental and private-sector experience. That background informs how she approaches cases and client questions. She has experience handling matters that require familiarity with court procedure, administrative rules and the practical realities of litigation in Mississippi.
Colleagues describe her work as steady and practical. She has spent time balancing the paperwork and deadlines common to litigation while responding to the shifting demands of agency counsel and private clients. Her path from a statewide law office to a state agency and back into the bar community has given her a broad view of how cases develop over time.
Outside of casework she has stayed involved in the legal community through association activity and by taking on leadership duties at the county bar level. That involvement has kept her connected to developments in state practice and to the network of lawyers who handle local civil matters.
She is licensed in both Mississippi and Alabama and maintains an active practice that centers on defense work and related state-court matters.
