Macdonald retired as DPP on 31 October 2008, returning to private practice at Matrix Chambers and becoming a regular contributor to "The Times", where he writes on law, security and politics. He was succeeded in the office by Keir Starmer. In 2009, he was appointed a Visiting Professor of Law at the London School of Economics. In 2010, he became a Deputy High Court Judge and a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Criminology at the University of Oxford.