DeMaurice Smith is the Executive Director of the National Football League Players Association. He was elected unanimously by a board of active player representatives on March 16, 2009.
Prior to his election, he was a trial lawyer and litigation partner in the Washington, DC offices of law firms Patton Boggs, LLP and Latham Watkins LLP. In private practice, he represented Fortune 500 companies in criminal and complex civil cases, compliance matters, and internal investigations. He has argued numerous cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
Smith previously served as Counsel to then-Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder in the U.S. Department of Justice before entering private practice. His duties revolved around national security issues, congressional relations, and DOJ budget and finance allocation
He served in the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia for ten years where he held senior positions in the Violent Crime and Transnational and Major Crime Sections. He prosecuted more than 80 jury trials and handled some of the most significant homicide, narcotics and white collar criminal investigations in the history of that office.
Smith is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, has served on the Board of Governors of the D.C. Bar Association, and is the' former president of the Assistant United States Attorney's Association. He is also a member of the Board of Advisors for the Office for Access and Advancement for Public Black Universities of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities. He is a recipient of the United States Attorney General's Award, the John Evans Trial Advocacy Award from the United States Attorney's Association, and the 2010 Cedarville College Alumnus of the Year Award. He was also honored as a recipient of the Keeper of the Dream Award by the National Action Network and named one of the Top Ten Most Influential Persons by the Sports Business Journal. He was inducted into the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges' Hall of Excellence in 2010, and was the 2011 Commencement Speaker at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland.
Smith is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law and received his bachelor's degree in Political Science from Cedarville University, a Christian college in Ohio. He is a member of the Maryland and District of Columbia Bar Associations.
