ALLIANCE NEWS - The Chicago Bar Association

Questions with the Speaker: Meet Mary Smith
By Jill Russell
Mary Smith
This year at the Alliance for
Women’s Kickoff Event, we
were happy to welcome Alliance
member Mary Smith,
who spoke to the audience about this
year’s theme, Building Relationships
Through Service. Ms. Smith is the
highest Native American political appointee
in the Department of Justice
and currently serves as Counselor in
the Civil Division. Ms. Smith was formerly
a partner with Schoeman, Updike,
& Kaufman, a women-owned
law firm and was Senior Litigation
Counsel at Tyco International (US) Inc.
Ms. Smith has served in many other
roles throughout her career, including
as Associate Counsel to the President
and Associate Director of Policy Planning
in the Clinton Administration.
We sat down with Ms. Smith
to discuss her perspective on service
by attorneys. Here is an edited version
of our conversation:
AFW: This year’s Alliance for
Women theme is “Building Relationships
Through Service.” What does
service mean to you and what role
does it play in your current career?
Lawyers are able to serve
in ways that can make a tremendous
difference, whether it is helping
someone start a business, protecting
women and children from domestic
violence through the court sys-
Page 4
tem, or helping a homeowner navigate
a mortgage foreclosure process.
When I recently returned to
work at the Justice Department, I was
reminded of an inscription that was on
the wall just outside the Attorney General’s
private office, which read, and
I’m paraphrasing: “The Government
wins its case when justice is done.”
Many years ago, Janet
Reno told my boss, Assistant Attorney
General Tony West, that his
job as a prosecutor wasn’t to win
as many cases as he could, but to
do justice in every case he handled.
That’s the same spirit I see in my colleagues
every day. And, in doing our
best to heed Janet Reno’s words – to
do justice in every case we touch – we
may not always get it exactly right,
but I can promise you we always try
to do what’s right. And that, I believe,
can make the critical difference.
What has been your most
rewarding service experience?
While I was in the White
House, I was responsible for a number
of policy areas that affect the
lives of many Americans. One of the
policy areas for which I was responsible
was Native American issues.
During my last year in the
White House, I envisioned a comprehensive
Native American agenda that
spanned across all federal agencies.
As part of this process, I called together
all the relevant persons from all the
agencies to start to put together a comprehensive
agenda. I also met with outside
Native American groups and tribal
leaders throughout the country. In this
effort, I created some new initiatives. I
am the proudest of the initiative to create
1000 new Native American teachers.
This program was funded out of
the Department of Education. This
program leveraged the resources of
this nation’s 34 tribal colleges and partnered
them with four-year universities
to provide degrees for 1000 new Native
American teachers over three years.
About one month after I left
the White House, I received the following
note from the Director of American
Indian Education at the Department of
Education: “Last week I was in Phoenix
and visited with the 23 American
Indian teacher trainees attending the
[Arizona State University program]
that we funded. . . .Of course they are
all thrilled to have the opportunity,
many saying that they would have
never gone on with their education to
become a teacher if it were not for the
program. . . .I must report to you that the
program is everything you may have
ever hoped for and though many of
the student teachers do not know your
role in bringing this effort to fruition,
be happy that your work has had such
a direct and positive effect on the lives
of Indian people.” That note encapsulates
why service is important to me.
How did you remain involved
in service while employed in the private
sector?
The great thing about service
is that it can take many forms. It does
not need to be formal or even occur
on a regular basis. Even during my
busiest times while I worked at a law
firm, I still tried to do what I could.
I accepted pro bono work, and, even
though I might not have had time for
trial work, I did accept appellate cases
when I could. I also always make
time to meet with young attorneys
seeking career advice. I have a policy
of never saying “no” to a younger
attorney seeking my help with his or
her career. And, for many years, my
holidays were made more meaningful
by volunteering with my mother
at the Salvation Army in Chicago.
How have the relationships
that you have built through various
types of service (bar association,
volunteer work, pro bono, etc)
helped you in your career path?
The relationships I have made
through my service efforts have certainly
enriched my life, broadened
my friendships, and taught me a lot.
Through my service projects, I have
met many incredible people that I otherwise
would not have met. And, for
that reason alone, I have had many
Continued on Page 12