There, she reviews and evaluates petitions related to the President’s exercise of executive clemency. During her tenure with the Justice Department, Professor Smith has also served as a Trial Attorney in the Criminal Division and as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of California. Prior to that, she clerked for Chief Judge Ruben Castillo of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Professor Smith has also been an adjunct faculty member at The George Washington University Law School. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Howard University and a graduate of Northwestern University School of Law.