First and foremost, from all accounts by people who have worked with Smith over the last few decades, he is a formidable opponent. He began his career in law serving as Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office after earning his Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude from the State University of New York at Oneonta and his Juris Doctor cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1994.
He would soon join the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York in 1999 where he was involved in the successful prosecution of the leader of a violent drug gang called the Stapleton Crew who murdered two members of the New York Police Department, ultimately securing the death penalty.
