Gerry Spence Method
David Smith

David Smith

Criminal Defense Attorney

"I learned that there’s courage in truly caring for the client, strength in community, power in honesty and truth. No other experience in my life taught me so much in so little time."

David D. Smith grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He attended the University of Oklahoma (BA Letters 1979) and the University of Oklahoma College of Law (Juris Doctorate 1982) in Norman Oklahoma, where he was an editor of the Oklahoma Law Review. He was licensed to practice in the State of Oklahoma in 1982. He attended studied at the Ranch in Wyoming in 2004. He is also on the faculty of the National Judicial College. He is a member of the Oklahoma Criminal Defense Lawyers Association (OCDLA); the Oklahoma County Criminal Defense Lawyers Association (Charter Member); and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Mr. Smith has presented and spoken on subjects including jury selection; handling high profile cases; evidence; best practices in capital litigation; and the use of advanced techniques in case preparation, for the Oklahoma Criminal Defense Lawyers Association; Oklahoma County Criminal Defense Lawyers Association; Tulsa County Criminal Defense Lawyers Association; National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws; and the National Judicial College. He has conducted jury trials throughout Oklahoma and in Washington, Texas and Missouri.

In addition to a private practice in the areas of criminal defense and civil litigation, Mr. Smith served as the Public Defender for Cleveland County from 1997 until July 2014. He received the OCDLA President’s Award for Outstanding Advocacy in 2006; in 2012 he was awarded the John Adams Award as the outstanding public defense lawyer in the State of Oklahoma; and in 2016 he received the Clarence Darrow Award as the states outstanding criminal defense lawyer. In 2018 he appeared in the Netflix documentary, “The Innocent Man.”