About Todd A.
Todd A. Smith built a legal foundation across the Midwest in the early 1970s. He graduated from the University of Kansas with a B.S.B. in 1971, earned an MBA from Northwestern University’s Graduate School of Management in 1973, and completed his Juris Doctor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law in 1976. Those degrees set the stage for a long career in trial and appellate courts.
He is a founding partner of SMITH LACIEN LLP. Over decades he has maintained admissions in Illinois and the District of Columbia, argued matters in the Seventh Circuit, and appeared in the U.S. District Courts for the Central and Northern Districts of Illinois. He is also admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court. That combination of trial and appellate credentials underpins much of his professional work.
Smith’s practice has run parallel to sustained involvement in bar and professional organizations. He served as president of the Illinois State Bar Association and has been active on the Board of Directors of the Trial Lawyers Club of Chicago since 1987. He served on the Board of Directors of The Society of Trial Lawyers from 1992 to 1995, and on the Appellate Lawyers Association board from 1991 to 1993. In 2000 he participated on the Illinois Bar Foundation’s Fundraising Steering Committee.
His memberships are varied. They include the Chicago Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the American Inn of Court’s Markey Wigmore chapter, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, and the ISBA Mutual Insurance Company. He maintains a connection with his alma mater through Loyola University of Chicago School of Law.
Colleagues describe Smith as a lawyer who balances courtroom experience with appellate work. He has handled contested matters in state and federal venues and taken cases beyond trial courts to appellate panels. His long-standing presence on boards and committees reflects a practice shaped as much by professional engagement as by litigation.
Outside the courtroom he has continued to serve bar institutions and professional groups. His years on the Trial Lawyers Club board, and earlier roles on other boards, speak to sustained involvement rather than fleeting participation.
Smith remains a practicing lawyer at SMITH LACIEN LLP. He represents clients in complex civil litigation and handles appeals in both trial and appellate courts as part of his current practice focus.
