Raise DC Leadership Council

Walter Smith has been the Executive Director of DC Appleseed since 2001. Previously, Smith served as the Special Deputy Corporation Counsel at the DC Office of the Corporation Counsel (now the Office of the Attorney General), where he supervised litigation affecting school systems, pro-bono assistance for the District from private law firms, and bringing a suit before a three-judge federal court seeking voting representation for the District in Congress.

Smith also practiced for 16 years at the law firm of Hogan Lovells, where he specialized in appellate litigation. For several years, he served as a partner and full-time director of the firm’s pro-bono practice. He also served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy JAG Corps. Smith has argued numerous cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, and the DC Court of Appeals. 

Smith has a BA from the University of Oklahoma and a law degree from Harvard Law School. In 2007, Legal Times named Smith one of the “90 Greatest Washington Lawyers of the Last 30 Years.”