R. MICHAEL SMITH has practiced law since 1975 as an in-house corporate counsel, a government attorney, and an attorney with law firms.  Mr Smith has been a partner in two firms and of counsel at Dechert LLP, a major international firm.

Mr Smith has counseled individuals and companies, including major corporations, on compliance with state and federal laws and has successfully represented them in arbitrations, litigation, mediation, and administrative proceedings.  His practice has included a wide variety of industries, including securities, product liability, telecommunications, education, retail, insurance, agriculture, transportation, construction, finance, manufacturing, and government contracting. 

Mr Smith’s professional accomplishments have included:

• Argued a total 20 cases in eight different U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals on behalf of the National Labor Relations Board and prevailed in 80% of those cases
• Obtained judgment for his client in a class action filed pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act
• Won dismissal at the conclusion of a company’s case filed against an individual falsely accused of stealing his former employer’s trade secrets
• Won a jury judgment in favor of his client who was accused of sexually harassing a fellow employee
• Obtained summary judgments for his clients in at least 10 employment discrimination and wrongful discharge cases
• Successfully defended individuals accused of violating covenants not to compete.
• Inducted into the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers based on his professional accomplishments
• Selected by American Bar Association to be a regular speaker at seminars, including litigation skills seminars to presented to attorneys throughout the U.S
• Appointed to represent the ABA at a conference of European Union employment attorneys held in Austria

Mr. Smith’s work at CGL recently resulted in a $113.7 million jury verdict on behalf of 13,000 Corrections Officers owed backpay by the Missouri Department of Corrections for thousands of hours of uncompensated work.  The court also entered a declaratory judgment that requires MDOC to pay those employees in the future all straight and overtime compensation earned by them.

Mr Smith has a long history of representing pro bono U.S. and international clients and has received the Samuel L. Klein award from Dechert LLP for that work.

Since 2003, Mr Smith has performed legal work related to Afghanistan which has included, among other things, leading a team that drafted a new labor and employment law code for that nation, being retained as a consultant in litigation in the U.S. filed pursuant to that law, participating in economic development projects, representing 30 men imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay who were falsely accused of engaging in terrorism, and serving as the General Counsel for the American University of Afghanistan. 

Mr Smith is currently the chair of the board of directors of PARSA, a non-governmental organization headquartered in Kabul, that has resurrected the Boy and Girl Scouts which had been out of existence for 50 years.

Mr Smith has participated in community service work as a member of Rotary International and his parish in Maryland.  He has traveled to Haiti in connection with that work as a volunteer and fundraiser for an elementary school and community center located there.