I graduated from the U of U law school 14th in my class (there was no BYU law school then) in 1965, passed the Utah Bar exam, and immediately went to California where I passed the bar exam there the same year. I practiced a year with the SEC as a staff attorney, then a year as a Deputy Public Defender for L.A. County, and then over twenty years with the 55 attorney firm of Booth, Mitchel, Strange & Smith. I was a name partner and practiced exclusively in insurance defense, which included product liability, professional negligence (both medical and legal), insurance coverage issues, and business disputes under the “personal injury” coverage of insurance policies. I tried over 50 civil jury cases to verdict.

I left B,M,S&S in 1985 and built my own practice with my wife—still insurance defense. The firm was at around 30 attorneys when the two of us opened a new firm in 1996, of which we still are the exclusive equity partners. Smith, Smith, Blonska & Strunk, LLP does exclusively family law, including guardianships and conservatorships. The bulk of the practice is dissolution of marriage proceedings and post-judgment modifications of custody and/or support. The firm has five active family lawyers.

More information about E. Gary Smith is available at http://www.smithandsmith-law.com.