Smith has taught classes in business associations, contracts, corporate finance, law & entrepreneurship, and securities regulation.
He received a bachelor's degree in accounting from the Marriott School of Business at BYU in 1986.
He then attended the University of Chicago Law School where he earned his Juris Doctor degree in 1990.
After graduating, he worked as a judicial law clerk for W. Eugene Davis on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Smith then spent three years with the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom before joining the faculty of Lewis and Clark Law School.