Jessie Smith
Jessie Smith serves as Director of the Criminal Justice Innovation Lab, which brings together a broad range of stakeholders to address criminal justice problems, implement innovative consensus solutions, and measure the impact of their efforts. The Lab seeks to promote a fair and effective criminal justice system, public safety, and economic prosperity through an evidence-based approach to criminal justice policy.
Smith has offered numerous courses for trial and appellate judges and has taught sessions for prosecutors, defenders, law enforcement officers, magistrates, and others. Her many books, chapters, articles, and other publications deal with criminal procedure, substantive criminal law, and evidence.
Smith came to the School of Government in 2000 after practicing law at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C., and clerking for Judge W. Earl Britt on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, and for Judge J. Dickson Phillips, Jr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
In 2006, Smith received the Albert and Gladys Hall Coates Term Professorship for Teaching Excellence; in 2013, she was named by the Chancellor as a W. R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor, one of the University’s highest academic honors. Smith earned a B.A., cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D., magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was managing editor of the Law Review.