Attorney Biography
Richard W. Smith graduated from the FSU College of Law in Tallahassee in 1994 and obtained his J.D. with High Honors. From there he practiced law in Jacksonville, Florida at a downtown law firm handling primarily criminal defense matters, employment lawsuits, and appeals in both areas. In 1999, attorney Rick Smith he moved to Orlando, and he has been serving and representing clients throughout Central Florida in a wide array of civil matters including employment disputes, commercial and consumer contract disagreements, product liability and wrongful death matters, premises liability lawsuits such as slip and fall and negligent security, automobile and trucking accident claims, ADA accessibility matters, workplace discrimination and retaliation disputes, wage and hour concerns (unpaid wages, overtime, & minimum wages), non-compete agreement enforcement and defense whether relating to employment or independent contractor situations, and defamation litigation. He is admitted to try cases throughout Florida including all three of the federal civil districts, i.e., Middle, Southern and Northern Districts of Florida. Beyond the courtroom, Rick Smith handles various transactional work for his clients. A short list of his prior experience assisting his clients includes drafting and/or analyzing various commercial and consumer contracts, creating custom employment handbooks and policy manuals, conducting or assisting in internal employment investigations as to sexual harassment and discrimination, handling wage and hour audits, forming and registering certain company entities, preparing various powers of attorney, drafting and/or reviewing severance agreements, creating and/or analyzing employment or independent contractor agreements, and more.