Southern Fall/Winter 2022

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS
The Hon. Robert H. Smith ’66
20
22
“Your empathy has
the greatest impact
on people.”
He argued so much and so well, said one of Robert Smith’s
high school teachers, that he should consider being a lawyer.
Little did Smith know that his teacher’s observation would
lead him to spend nearly 50 years as one of Alabama’s most
distinguished attorneys and judges.
For both Smith and his brother, Malcolm Glen Smith, Sr.
’65, who were the first in their family to graduate college,
Birmingham-Southern was a daunting but formative step in
their lives.
“It was all exciting and new, both of us being from Mobile,
it was a step up in the size of the city,” he says. “Not knowing
really what I wanted to do, I did know education was going to
be part of the formula.”
Smith majored in business administration and economics, two
of his strongest subjects. He met his future wife, Anne Sisson
Smith ’67, when they were paired as chemistry lab partners.
Smith was the business and history buff opposite Anne Smith,
the science buff who would have a career as an educator.
After graduating from BSC, Smith earned his J.D. at the
University of Alabama School of Law and began his 37-year
career in private practice. His Mobile-based practice focused
on admiralty and maritime suits while maintaining a diverse
range of defense work that took Smith across the country.
Motivated by his desire to change what he saw happening
in the state government, Smith decided to run for office
in 2004 when a seat opened on the Supreme Court
of Alabama. Though he did not win the seat, he loved
campaigning across Alabama.
“I got to travel all over Alabama and see people I wouldn’t
have had any opportunity to meet, and saw little towns and
courthouse lawyers, and that was very beneficial,” Smith says.
He decided to run again when a circuit judge seat opened
in Mobile County. He took the bench in 2006 as 13th
Judicial Circuit Court Judge. Smith spent 12 years on the
bench in both civil and criminal trials.
The criminal cases Smith saw often revealed injustice,
and his position allowed him to address these injustices on a
case-by-case basis and on a larger scale. During his time on
the bench, he was involved in reform for the Alabama prison
system, including rehabilitation projects and fair sentencing
protocols, that are still ongoing and continue to need
improvement, he says.
Now retired, Smith maintains his lifelong love for history –
reading constitutional history among his other favorite genres
– and remains proud of his work, and hopeful for the great
lawyers and judges who want to create change through law.
Smith’s experiences on the bench and his own past taught
him an important lesson, he says:
“Your empathy has the greatest impact on people.”
56 / ’southern