Mary Smith, as an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, will be one of the first Native Americans to serve as an officer of the American Bar Association when she becomes its secretary this month.
A University of Chicago Law School-trained attorney, Smith clerked at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and has been a lawyer at the White House, 1997-2001, the U.S. Department of Justice, 1994-1996 and then 2010-2012, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, 2001-2005, Tyco International, 2005-2007 and the Indian Health Service, from 2015 until last January, when she left with the administration turnover. There, as principal deputy director, helping to provide health care for 2.2 million people and oversaw a $6 billion budget.
