[3] As a specialist in antitrust law, McKay represented clients such as the National Football League and Continental Baking.

[5] The appointment began after the Justice Department requested a special prosecutor to investigate allegations that Lyn Nofziger had violated a prohibition on lobbying for clients such as Wedtech shortly after Nofziger's service on the White House staff of president Ronald Reagan.

Under McKay's leadership, the investigation expanded to assess evidence that Edwin Meese—by then the sitting U.S. Attorney General—had intervened on behalf of Wedtech and otherwise violated conflicts of interest standards during Meese's service as White House Counsel to President Reagan.

"[11] As a senior counsel associated with Covington & Burling, McKay continued to represent clients on a pro bono basis well beyond his 90th birthday.

In 2008, the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims presented McKay with the Hart T. Mankin Distinguished Service Award.