RALEIGH — Salisbury native Anna Elizabeth Smith, daughter of Elizabeth Withers Smith and the late State Rep. Neal Smith Sr., has become a member of the National Trial Lawyers: Top 100 Trial Lawyers organization.
Anna Smith specializes in criminal defense out of her own law firm in Raleigh.
The National Trial Lawyers is a professional organization of America’s top trial lawyers, and membership is by invitation only.
In her practice, Smith represents clients facing charges from traffic citations to murder in District and Superior courts in Wake County.
Smith graduated from the N.C. School of Arts for Opera and Classical Voice in 1992. She went on to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she graduated in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in communications.
Smith earned her juris doctorate from the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law at Campbell University, with honors in pre-trial litigation, real estate and sports/entertainment law.
Smith also attended the Notre Dame School of Law in London, England, where she studied international human rights and comparative family law.
Before establishing her own firm, she practiced civil and criminal law with Jerry W. Leonard.
Away from the courtroom, Smith has served as legal faculty for the Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism at Campbell Law School’s Intercession Program.
She is currently vice president of the board for the Foundation for Good Business, and she works with many charitable organizations and serves on boards or has memberships in numerous other foundations, programs or professional organizations.