Since opening up meetings of the National Economic Commission within her first weeks of practicing law, Eleanor Smith has been advancing the interests of her clients in and out of court. In her litigation and government relations practice, Ms. Smith has handled a wide variety of matters, including those regarding information access, privacy, the First Amendment, voting rights and other political activity, professional liability, white-collar criminal defense, debarment, gaming, and Native American law. She has prosecuted and defended cases in trial and appellate courts, authored briefs amicus curiae in the U.S. Supreme Court, represented clients before regulatory agencies, and negotiated settlements.

As chair of the firm’s pro bono practice, Ms. Smith has challenged the constitutionality of a state’s death penalty statutes, filed a voting rights suit on the eve of a presidential election, and filed an appellate brief to get an abused spouse access to marital assets. In addition to her own significant pro bono contributions, Ms. Smith also helps other Zuckerman Spaeder lawyers serve the public interest.

Ms. Smith is the co-author of chapters on federal prosecution of campaign finance, voting rights, political patronage and former government employee lobbying crimes in Political Activity, Lobbying Laws and Gift Rules Guide (West Publishing, Third Edition 2008); chapters on the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Government-in-the-Sunshine Act, and Exemption 8 to the Freedom of Information Act in Litigation under the Federal Open Government Laws, which was first published in 1990 and most recently updated in 2006; and co-author of Access to Environmental Information (1989). She is secretary of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a former co-chair of the Administrative Law Section of the District of Columbia Bar, and active with the Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit.

Before joining Zuckerman Spaeder, Ms. Smith was a litigator with Public Citizen Litigation Group and a law clerk to the Honorable Harold H. Greene, U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Columbia. Ms. Smith conducted advocacy work for non-governmental organizations favoring the Law of the Sea Treaty before she entered law school.