David Brookman "Brooks" Smith (born December 4, 1951)[1] is a senior judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Smith was later named as a special prosecutor, conducting a grand jury investigation from 1981 to 1983 into organized criminal activity in central Pennsylvania.

[5] Having been unanimously rated "well qualified" by the Standing Committee of the American Bar Association, his nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on July 31, 2002.

In that capacity, he led a national space reduction initiative which was the federal judiciary's major cost containment measure.

During his time on the District Court, he served for six years on the Criminal Rules Advisory Committee of the Judicial Conference, beginning in 1993.

Judge Smith has assisted in efforts to enhance the rule of law in the judicial systems of Central and Eastern Europe.

[10] In 2007, he assisted USAID with an assessment of the legal system in the Republic of the Philippines as part of that Agency’s Commercial Law and Institutional Reform initiative; participated in seven judicial ethics trainings for the USAID Judicial Development Project in Chisinau, Moldova; and addressed an International Conference “On the Impact of the European Convention on Human Rights to the Development of the Azerbaijani Legal System,” in Baku, Azerbaijan.

In 2022, Waynesburg University awarded Smith an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at a commencement ceremony during which he delivered the main address.

That award bears the name of a distinguished Pittsburgh legal practitioner who, in 1980 became only the second African American to be appointed to Pennsylvania’s Superior Court.