Deirdre M. Smith
Associate Professor of Law and Director,
Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic
B.A., University of Pennsylvania
J.D., University of Maine School of Law
Office Phone: (207) 780-4370
desmith@usm.maine.edu
Professor Smith is the Director of the Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic, and teaches clinical courses, mental disability law, and evidence. She graduated from the University of Maine School of Law, summa cum laude, and received her B.A. in American History, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania.
After graduating from the Law School, Professor Smith clerked for Chief Judge Gene Carter of the United States District Court for the District of Maine, and then joined the Portland law firm of Drummond Woodsum & MacMahon. Through her varied civil litigation practice at the firm, Professor Smith represented educational institutions, businesses, municipalities and individuals in jury and bench trials, arbitrations, and mediations, as well as in appeals before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
Professor Smith has had a strong interest in the field of disability law and civil rights for several years. She has represented individuals with disabilities in discrimination claims, served on the American Bar Association's Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law, and received recognition for her work on behalf of people with disabilities from the Division of Deafness of the Maine Bureau of Rehabilitation Services and the Disability Rights Center of Maine. More recently, her scholarly research has focused on the intersection of psychiatry, mental illness, and evidence law in the context of civil litigation.
Professor Smith serves on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court's Advisory Committee on the Rules of Evidence and Governor John Baldacci's Select Committee on Judicial Appointments. She is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Maine Bar Foundation and a founding board member of KIDS Legal.
When not busy at the Law School, Professor Smith is an avid cyclist and yoga practitioner.
Professor Smith's publications include:
- An Uncertain Privilege: Implied Waiver and the Evisceration of the Psychotherapist-Patient Privilege in Federal Courts, 58 DePaul Law Review __ (forthcoming 2008)
- Who Says You're Disabled? The Role of Medical Evidence in the ADA Definition of Disability, 82 Tulane L. Rev. 1 (2007)
- The Paradox of Personality: Mental Illness, Employment Discrimination and the Americans with Disabilities Act, 17 Geo. Mason U. Civ. R.L.J. 79 (2006)
- Maine School Law, H. Pringle and A. Tchao, eds. (Drummond Woodsum & MacMahon 2001) (co-author of Chapter 6: “School Litigation and Liability”)
- Representing Deaf Clients: What Every Lawyer Should Know, 15 Me. Bar J. 128 (2000) (co-authored with Elizabeth Gallie, Esq.)
- Confronting Silence: The Constitution, Deaf Criminal Defendants and the Right to Interpretation During Trial, 46 Me. L. Rev. 87 (1994) (winner of 1994 SCRIBES Award)
