Trial attorney Royce W. Smith has compiled a truly impressive record of success while fighting for the rights of the catastrophically injured and families who have lost loved ones as the result of the wrongful conduct of others.

In the past five years alone, Smith has helped victims of negligence secure over $52 million in verdicts and settlements. Smith has successfully represented plaintiffs in cases involving wrongful death, medical practice, birth injuries, brain injuries, failure to diagnose cancer, product liability, personal injury, auto accidents, bus accidents, trucking accidents, construction accidents, workplace injuries, premises liability, fire & explosion, crime victims, civil rights, and employment discrimination.

For his work in these areas, Smith was named a Rising Star by Pennsylvania Superlawyers and Philadelphia Magazine in 2009, 2010, and 2011 through a voting process among Pennsylvania's 39,000 attorneys and reviews by a special blue-ribbon panel.

Legal Education

Attorney Smith is a graduate of Temple University Beasley School of Law where he won a string of academic prizes for trial advocacy and oration and competed on nationally-recognized mock trial teams. While at Temple, Smith received the James J. Manderino Award for Trial Advocacy, the Andrew Gay Award for Excellence in Trial Advocacy and twice won the Murray S. Love Award for Excellence in Trial Advocacy.

While maintaining a thriving law practice, in 2008 Smith enrolled in Temple University's nationally renowned LL.M. in Trial Advocacy program. This yearlong, intensive, postgraduate law degree program focused solely on litigation and courtroom skills. At the conclusion of the course, Smith was voted by the faculty as the top-performing student in the LL.M. in Trial Advocacy program at Temple University Beasley School of Law.

From the Community to the Courthouse

Raised in North Philadelphia, Royce W. Smith’s parents and family taught him life lessons that have served him well professionally: to maintain justice, do what is right and give voice to the concerns of the voiceless.

Smith’s late father pastored a Baptist church in North Philadelphia, and his mother is currently an associate pastor of a Baptist church in Mount Airy/Germantown, Philadelphia. Additionally, Smith’s grandfather and uncle pastored a church in Jenkintown, PA for a combination of over 50 years. Today, true to his roots, Smith provides free counseling at legal clinics hosted by area churches.

As an undergraduate at Williams College, Smith won both the Lehman Community Service Scholarship and the Sterling B. Brown Citizenship Prize. Both awards were given in recognition of his service to Williams and the surrounding community, as well as for Smith’s work on issues regarding racial and cultural diversity. He was a member of the Williams’ Gargoyle Society, an honors society of student leaders and activists, and was a chairperson of the Williams Black Student Union. In between semesters, he interned with the NAACP Branch of Legal Affairs in Philadelphia.

Today, while maintaining a busy and thriving law practice, Smith remains active in his community by volunteering at legal clinics at local churches. Smith was also recently selected to become a Minority Caucus Board Member of the Pennsylvania Association of Justice. Smith is also an active member of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association and serves on the Editorial Board of PTLA's monthly publication The Verdict and serves on the PTLA Diversity Committee. Smith also has had several articles published regarding pharmaceutical products, medical devices, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in Update Magazine, Drug Recall Litigation Reporter and Pharmaceutical Litigation Reporter.  Smith is also an adjunct professor at Drexel University Earl Mack School of Law, where he teaches trial advocacy and evidence.