Richard W. Smith

Orlando Personal Injury and Civil Trial Litigator

Born in Leesburg, Florida, Rick Smith is a second-generation Floridian and has been litigating for approximately 30 years in North and Central Florida. In 1994, he graduated from the FSU College of Law in Tallahassee and obtained his J.D. with High Honors. From there he practiced law in Jacksonville, Florida, at a firm handling primarily employment lawsuits, civil rights, criminal defense, and appeals. In 1999, Rick and his family moved to Orlando. He has been dedicated to serving and representing clients throughout Central Florida in a wide array of civil matters including employment disputes, commercial and consumer contract disagreements, product liability and wrongful death matters, premise liability lawsuits, slip and fall, negligent security, automobile, and trucking accident claims, ADA accessibility matters, workplace discrimination, and retaliation disputes, wage and hour concerns (unpaid wages, overtime, & minimum wages), non-compete agreement enforcement and defense whether relating to employment or independent contractor situations and defamation litigation. He is an experienced Orlando trial attorney who knows his way around the courtroom and system.

Rick is admitted to practice throughout Florida as well as all three of the federal districts, i.e., Middle, Southern, and Northern Districts of Florida. Since 2012, he has consistently maintained an AV rating which is the highest rating granted attorneys under the Martindale-Hubbell system and which indicates his peers rank him to be practicing law at the highest levels of excellence. In addition, he has been recognized as a Super Lawyer from 2016 to 2020 in the area of Employment and Labor Law.

Beyond the courtroom, Rick Smith handles various transactional work for his clients. A shortlist of his prior experience assisting his clients includes drafting and/or analyzing various commercial and consumer contracts, creating custom employment handbooks and policy manuals, conducting or assisting in internal employment investigations as to sexual harassment and discrimination, handling wage and hour audits, forming and registering certain company entities, preparing various powers of attorney, drafting and/or reviewing severance agreements, creating and/or analyzing employment or independent contractor agreements, and more.

In 2010, Rick was certified by the Florida Supreme Court as a Circuit Civil Mediator and conducts private party and court-ordered Mediations. He is also certified by the Florida Supreme Court as a County Civil Mediator and is approved to conduct mediations in federal civil cases in the Middle District of Florida.

In 2024, Rick moved into heading the Personal Injury Department while still maintaining a presence in the Civil Litigation Department.

When not at the office or courtroom, you might find Rick trapped in an escape room, being dragged around downtown by his two dogs, or hiking a National Park with his son and daughter-in-law.