Attorney Donald Frederickson left the role of Lackawanna County general counsel for a position with the county Court of Common Pleas.
Frederickson, who served as general counsel, county solicitor and acting chief of staff at different points during his nearly 14-year county tenure, was offered and accepted the county court position of orphans’ court master, he confirmed in a recent interview. A partner in the firm Kobal & Frederickson, he’ll continue to serve as solicitor for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport board, made up of officials from Lackawanna and Luzerne counties.
Commissioners Bill Gaughan, Thom Welby and Chris Chermak hired attorney Christopher Caputo to succeed Frederickson as general counsel at an annual salary of $51,708. Caputo’s start date is Friday, per an approval-to-hire form signed by all three commissioners.
Frederickson’s first stint as county solicitor ran from 2012 to 2016, after which he served as general counsel and, for a period in 2018 and 2019, as acting chief of staff to a previous board of commissioners. Frederickson then returned to the solicitor role in an acting capacity when former solicitor Frank Ruggiero became a county judge in July 2023.
Gaughan and then-Commissioner Matt McGloin later announced Frederickson as their choice for solicitor shortly after taking office in 2024 as the county’s new Democratic majority commissioners. In the solicitor role, Frederickson represented the county — and Gaughan in his capacity as a commissioner — in a 2025 lawsuit challenging a county Home Rule Charter process for appointing McGloin’s successor following McGloin’s abrupt late-February resignation.
The bitter, monthslong legal battle ultimately ended in October when the state Supreme Court upheld the charter’s appointment process, allowing appointed Democratic Commissioner Brenda Sacco to take office.
Sacco and Chermak then hired in late October attorney Paul James Walker of Clarks Summit as county solicitor, transferring Frederickson back to the role of general counsel. Wednesday was his last day in that position.
Welby, the winner of a Nov. 4 special election to fill the remainder of McGloin’s unexpired term, replaced Sacco as commissioner Nov. 25.
Gaughan, Welby and Chermak all praised Frederickson this week, with Welby calling his service “exemplary” and Chermak calling him “a world of knowledge,” a “huge help” and a good friend.
“He had a vast amount of knowledge about the inner workings of county government being there for over a decade and it’s sad to see him go, because he was a huge asset,” Gaughan said of Frederickson. “His institutional knowledge will be missed.”
Frederickson described his county court position as a “new adventure,” noting he’s grateful for the opportunity.
“And I’m grateful for my years of service in serving the commissioners, all of them,” he said.