Biography: Product Liability Defence

Tim Smith, partner at Carroll, Burdick & McDonough, is an international trial lawyer who focuses his litigation practice on complex, cross-border civil and criminal legal matters around the globe. He has supervised and/or personally defended civil and criminal cases and claims in more than 65 countries, has appeared pro hac vice in lawsuits venued in 22 states in the United States, and he has taken or defended depositions in 35 of the United States plus the District of Columbia.

Mr Smith's cases have involved a wide range of products and issues internationally, including motor vehicles, aircraft, firearms, power tools, professional negligence, real estate and construction projects, vicarious liability, pharmaceuticals, food products, Alien Tort Claims Act matters, class actions, RICO litigation and large commercial disputes. He has extensive international arbitration and mediation experience, having participated in over 1,000 ADR proceedings around the world from all possible perspectives - as counsel, as a mediator, and even as a party.

Mr Smith also has broad, first-hand experience in front-line catastrophe management and crisis communications, setting up and managing global litigation coordination programmes and providing in-house, early stage legal advice focused on minimising corporate and personal client preventative, regulatory and safety-related civil and criminal liability risks.

A native English speaker who is nearly fluent in German, Mr Smith is the only American lawyer living abroad to be listed in The International Who's Who of Product Liability Defense Lawyers (2010 and 2011) and the Legal Media Group's Guide to the World's Leading Product Liability Lawyers (2009 and 2010). He and his team were just awarded the 2011 "International/Cross Border Law Firm of the Year in Germany Award" by Corporate International magazine. He received his JD from Golden Gate University School of Law (where he was editor-in-chief of the law review) and his BS from the University of Oregon.