Colleen Smith

Colleen’s experience spans numerous industries, including financial services, pharmaceuticals, and the media. She has helped her clients achieve successful outcomes at all stages of litigation. She has spearheaded countless successful dispositive pre-trial motions for her clients. She has also counseled her clients through high-profile bellwether trials and appeals before the Fourth and Ninth Circuits. Best Lawyers has named her to its Ones to Watch in America list for “outstanding professional excellence in private practice.”

Colleen maintains an active pro bono practice with a focus on high-impact civil rights cases. She teamed up with Lambda Legal to successfully block the implementation of an Idaho law that would have barred transgender individuals from changing the gender marker on their birth certificates. She also led a team of seven lawyers to achieve a six-figure settlement, during the initial stages of discovery, on behalf of a prisoner who had suffered numerous civil rights violations while incarcerated at a Maryland correctional facility.

Prior to joining Stris, Colleen was an associate in Covington & Burling LLP’s Washington, D.C. office where she specialized in class action and product liability litigation.

Prior to entering private practice, Colleen clerked for three federal judges: Judge Liam O’Grady of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Judge N. Randy Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and Chief Judge David Nye of the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho.

Colleen graduated first in her class from William & Mary School of Law, where she was an editor of the William & Mary Law Review, served as Vice President of the Student Bar Association, and was a member of the Appellate & Supreme Court Clinic founded and taught by Tillman Breckenridge. Colleen received her undergraduate degree in mathematics from The College of Idaho, where she served as Student Body President and earned All-American honors as a two-sport athlete.