 After graduating from Yale Law School, she joined the New York City corporate law firm of Debevoise, Plimpton, Lyons & Gates.McDougall is currently a Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at the Leitner Center on International Law and Justice, Fordham University Law School

In 1998, she was first elected to serve as an independent expert on the United Nations treaty body that oversees the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).She was the first American to be elected to the body of 18 international experts who oversee compliance by governments worldwide with the obligations established under the treaty.