About

MARY WATSON SMITH is the Managing Member of the Law Office of Mary Watson Smith, L.L.C., a boutique firm focused on appeals, supervisory writs, and trial-level motions practice in complex areas of civil law. Mary started her practice at a career crossroads. She has built a thriving firm providing an alternative path for other parents like her who are high-achieving, brilliant lawyers who also value a flexible work/life balance. Mary has worked at every level of the state court system as a law clerk to Justice Jeannette Theriot Knoll, Justice Greg Guidry, Justice Pro Tempore Susan Chehardy, and Judge Ricky Wicker and as an Assistant District Attorney in St. Tammany and Washington Parishes. At the helm of her own firm, she has worked with over 100 different Plaintiff firms across the state, advising on and working through every aspect of litigation from petition to appeal. She is very proud to have recently welcomed newly retired Supreme Justice Scott Crichton to join her firm as Of Counsel. With its wealth of institutional knowledge about the Louisiana Supreme Court, Mary’s firm heavily focuses on Supreme Court litigation and on cases that are headed there. Mary is a member of the Louisiana Law Institute’s Code of Civil Procedure Committee and Appellate Subcommittee. Mary is also a member of the Executive Committee and the Amicus Committee for the Louisiana Association for Justice, and she is a recipient of LAJ’s 2023-2024 President’s Award. She is Louisiana’s Revitalization Governor for the American Association for Justice, and she is a member of Better Louisiana’s 2025 Leadership Louisiana Class. Mary is AV-Rated by Martindale-Hubbell and a New Orleans Magazine Top Lawyer in Appeals (2023, 2024). Mary received her B.A. and M.A. in English from the University of Dallas, where she became a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She graduated cum laude from law school at George Mason University. She is the adoring wife of Alex Smith and mother of three sweet and silly kids – Evelyn (7), Jeannette (5), and Bex (3).