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Public: Recent News

Jeffrey L. Smith of Winston-Salem is the initial recipient of the LAD Pro Bono Award, presented by the Legal Assistants Division of the North Carolina Bar Association. 

The award was presented recently at the N.C. Bar Center by Jennifer Arnold, a Raleigh certified legal assistant who chairs the LAD Pro Bono Award Committee. The committee established the award in an effort to recognize the important contributions legal assistants make toward the “public good” in their communities.

Jeffrey Smith accepts LAD Pro Bono Award from Jennifer Arnold.

Smith has devoted countless hours of pro bono service during nearly two decades in which he has served as a legal assistant in the Triad area.

The honoree currently holds the position of litigation paralegal and assistant corporate secretary for Syngenta Crop Protection, Inc., in Greensboro, where he has worked since 1996.

Prior to that, he worked in the Winston-Salem law office of Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice, primarily as a legal assistant for the Environmental and Toxic Tort Litigation practice group.

Smith’s service to the community often is incorporated into his alter ego, “Smitty,” who serves as a one-man ambassador for downtown Winston-Salem. In his efforts to draw out participation and involvement from young adults, Smith has created a communications network that includes an electronic newsletter, Smitty’s Notes, and an accompanying Web site, Smittynotes.com, not to mention his own company, SCNTriad Event Communications.

In addition, Smith is a charter member of the Winston-Salem Foundation ECHO Council and chairs its volunteerism subcommittee. Everyone Can Help Out, as the acronym sets out, is yet another venture in which Smith puts his commitment to involvement and inclusiveness to extraordinary use.

“With his Smitty’s Notes column, he is a leader in promoting community engagement and drawing people out of their isolation and out beyond their familiar social circles,” stated Doug Easterling, associate professor for Wake Forest University’s Bowman Gray School of Medicine, in nominating Smith. “Likewise, as a charter member of the ECHO Council, Jeff has championed the issue of volunteerism, pushing for the formation of a task group on the topic, then chairing the group through its planning process, which yielded a solid proposal for a countywide volunteer center.

“Largely because of Jeff’s vision, dedication, and willingness to do the time-consuming work of relationship-building, the ECHO Council’s Volunteerism Committee has emerged as a vital new force in the community – one that has been able to bring together a disparate set of players around a common purpose.”

Easterling added that Smith’s dedication and persistence have been essential to ECHO’s success.

“Whereas past efforts to create a comprehensive volunteer center have failed to gain traction or have withered on the vine, the ECHO Council’s approach is generating enthusiasm and commitment on all sides,” Easterling said. “By appealing to the community’s larger interests, by understanding the specific interests of each partner, and by setting aside his own ego, Jeff has been successful in building the requisite trust and moving the project forward.”

Smith was born in Gastonia but his family moved to Winston-Salem a few years later and he has lived there most of his life. He earned his bachelor’s degree in public administration from Elon University in 1986 and, shortly thereafter, began his career at Womble Carlyle.

Previous honors bestowed upon Smith include the Winston-Salem Jaycees’ 2004 Outstanding Young Leader Award and recent recognition from The Business Journal of the Triad as one of the “50 Most Influential People in the Triad.”