Paul M. Smith
{{short description|American lawyer}}
{{for|the photographer and academic|Paul M. Smith (photographer)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2023}}
{{COI|date=March 2018}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name = Paul Smith
|image = Paul Smith Photo.jpg
|birth_date = {{birth year and age|1955}}
|birth_place = Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
|death_date =
|death_place =
|alma_mater = Amherst College
Yale University
}}
Paul March Smith (born 1955) is an American attorney. He has argued 21 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, including Lawrence v. Texas. In January 2017, he joined the faculty at Georgetown University Law Center, and also the Campaign Legal Center in Washington, D.C., as vice president of litigation and strategy.{{cite web|title=Paul M. Smith|url=http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/team/paul-m-smith|website=Campaign Legal Center|access-date=February 17, 2017}}{{cite news|last1=Rosenstein|first1=Peter|title=Comings & Goings|url=http://www.washingtonblade.com/2017/01/20/comings-goings-30/|access-date=February 17, 2017|work=Washington Blade|date=January 20, 2017}} Until 2017, he was a partner at Jenner & Block's Washington, D.C., office where he served as co-chair of the firm's election law and redistricting practice.{{Cite news|url=http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/team/paul-m-smith|title=Paul M. Smith|date=2017-01-04|work=Campaign Legal Center|access-date=2018-01-12|language=en}}
Education
Smith graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Amherst College in 1976 and received his J.D. degree from Yale Law School in 1979, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Law Journal.{{cite web|title=Masthead for Vol 88, Paul M. Smith, editor-in-chief|url=https://www.yalelawjournal.org/masthead/volume-88|publisher=Yale Law Journal|access-date=October 4, 2017}}{{cite web |url=https://jenner.com/people/PaulSmith|title=Paul M. Smith Biography |access-date=2017-01-04|publisher=Jenner & Block LLP |date=2017}} In 2016, Smith was elected to the Amherst College Board of Trustees.{{cite web|url=https://www.amherst.edu/amherst-story/facts/trustees/biographies/node/651297|title=Trustee Biographies: Paul Smith '76 |access-date=2016-07-06 |publisher=Amherst College|date= }}
Professional career
After law school, Smith was a law clerk to Judge James L. Oakes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. From 1980–81, Smith was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell. Smith practiced law for 13 years in Washington, D.C., with the firms of Onek, Klein & Farr and Klein, Farr, Smith & Taranto.{{cite journal|last1=Wermiel|first1=Stephen J.|title=Interview with Paul M. Smith|date=Summer 2010|journal=ABA Human Rights Magazine |volume=37|issue=3|url=http://www.americanbar.org/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/human_rights_vol37_2010/summer2010/interview_with_paul_m_smith.html|access-date=February 17, 2017}}
He had an active Supreme Court practice, including oral arguments in nineteen Supreme Court cases. These arguments have included two congressional redistricting cases, Lawrence v. Texas, involving the constitutionality of the Texas sodomy statute, United States v. American Library Association, involving a First Amendment challenge to the Children's Internet Protection Act and Mathias v. WorldCom (2001), dealing with the Eleventh Amendment immunity of state commissions.{{cite news|last1=Schwartz|first1=John|title=A Lawyer's Evolution, Mirroring the Law's|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/25/us/a-lawyers-evolution-mirroring-the-laws.html|access-date=February 17, 2017|work=New York Times|date=June 24, 2013}} Smith also worked extensively on several other First Amendment cases in the Supreme Court, involving issues ranging from commercial speech to defamation to "adult" speech on the Internet.
In February 2017, it was announced that Smith would be representing a group of 12 voters in the State of Wisconsin who were challenging the voting maps for its state assembly districts as unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering.{{cite news|last1=Marley|first1=Patrick|last2=Stein|first2=Jason|title=GOP lawmakers to write blank check to hire lawyers|url=http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/02/gop-plan-hire-lawyers-comes-after-2-million-spent/97394308/|access-date=February 17, 2017|work=Milwaukee Journal Sentinel|date=February 2, 2017}}{{Cite news|url=http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/case/gill-v-whitford|title=Gill v. Whitford|date=2017-08-28|work=Campaign Legal Center|access-date=2018-01-12|language=en}} Smith argued Gill v. Whitford before the Supreme Court on October 3, 2017.{{cite web|url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2017/16-1161_bpm1.pdf|title=Supreme Court}} It was the first partisan gerrymandering case to be heard by the Supreme Court since 2004.{{Cite web|url=https://www.law.georgetown.edu/news/web-stories/paul-smith-argues-historic-gerrymandering-case.cfm|title=Keeping it Real: Distinguished Visitor from Practice Paul Smith Argues a Historic Gerrymandering Case in the Supreme Court — Georgetown Law|website=www.law.georgetown.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-01-12}} In that case, Smith argued that partisan gerrymandering is a harm to democracy and that we are on the "cusp of a more serious problem" because officials drawing redistricting maps now have access to vast amounts of data, and because the electorate is now so polarized that voting has become more predictable than ever.{{Cite news|url=http://www.scotusblog.com/2017/10/argument-analysis-cautious-optimism-challengers-wisconsin-redistricting-case/|title=Argument analysis: Cautious optimism for challengers in Wisconsin redistricting case? - SCOTUSblog|date=2017-10-03|work=SCOTUSblog|access-date=2018-01-12|language=en-US}}
Smith is also a former Chair of Lambda Legal's National Board of Directors. Lambda Legal is a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of the LGBT community.
Personal life
Smith is married to Michael Dennis and has two children.{{cite web | url=https://www.amherst.edu/about/president-college-leadership/trustees/biographies/node/651297 | title=Paul Smith '76 | Trustees | Paul Smith '76 }}
Accomplishments
- Best Lawyers named him the Washington, D.C., First Amendment Lawyer of the Year for 2012.{{Cite news|url=http://rappnews.com/2012/11/01/supreme-court-advocate-smith-speaks-at-library/99771/|title=Supreme Court advocate Smith speaks at Library|last=Staff/Contributed|date=2012-11-01|work=Rappahannock News|access-date=2018-02-14|language=en-US}}
- The American Bar Association presented Smith with the Thurgood Marshall Award in 2010.{{Cite web|url=https://jenner.com/library/news/218|title=Smith Receives ABA's Prestigious Thurgood Marshall Award|website=Jenner & Block|language=en-US|access-date=2018-01-12}}
- Named one of "The Most Influential Lawyers of the Decade" for civil rights by The National Law Journal in 2010.{{Cite news|url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100329005113/en/National-Law-Journal-Names-%E2%80%9CThe-Influential-Lawyers|title=The National Law Journal Names "The Most Influential Lawyers of the Decade"|access-date=2018-01-12|language=en}}{{Cite web|url=https://jenner.com/about/firm/about/awards|title=Jenner & Block {{!}} Our Firm|website=jenner.com|language=en-us|access-date=2018-01-12|archive-date=13 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180113035547/https://jenner.com/about/firm/about/awards|url-status=dead}}
Bar membership
Smith was admitted to the bar in DC (on December 18, 1981), Maryland (on June 3, 1988), and New York (in 2006).[https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/attorney/AttorneySearch New York State Attorney Directory], New York State Office of Court Administration. Retrieved October 3, 2017.
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/smith-paul-m.cfm Profile] at Georgetown University Law Center.
- [https://www.oyez.org/advocates/paul_m_smith Oral arguments] at the U.S. Supreme Court. Oyez.com.
- {{C-SPAN|32801}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Paul M.}}
Category:Amherst College alumni
Category:Yale Law School alumni
Category:Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States
Category:20th-century American lawyers
Category:21st-century American lawyers
Category:Lawyers from Washington, D.C.
Category:First Amendment scholars
Category:American civil rights lawyers