Edward McDonald headed the Justice Department's largest and most successful Organized Crime Strike Force in Brooklyn throughout the 1980s. He was responsible for the convictions of the leaders of four of the five Mafia families in New York, over sixty LCN capos and soldiers, more than seventy corrupt labor union officials, and countless others associated with the LCN. He also successfully tried New Jersey senator Harrison Williams and successfully prosecuted five US congressmen. A member of the Screen Actors Guild, he played himself in Goodfellas and appeared in three other films. In private law practice in New York since 1990, he has been praised by the Legal 500, which said, "the 'excellent Edward McDonald' lives up to his reputation as 'one of the best criminal defense attorneys in New York.'" He is a graduate of Boston College and Georgetown Law School and lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Mary, a short walk from his three sons and five grandchildren.