Samantha Z. Smith hails from Cumberland, Maryland and is a resident of Westminster. She is a Magna Cum Laude and Dean’s Scholar graduate of the University of Maryland at College Park. She attended the University of Maryland School of Law where she was recognized for excellence in legal research and writing and oral advocacy by her election to the Moot Court Board. She was chosen as one of two persons in her law school class to represent the law school  at trial advocacy competitions as a member of the school’s trial team. Samantha was admitted to the Bar in 1996. Since then she has argued many times before the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, Maryland’s second highest court. She was involved in reported opinions in the domestic relations field: Miller v. Bosley, Schroeder v. Broadfoot, Barrett v. Ayres, dealing with issues involving grandparent visitation, name change of minor child, and orders from domestic relations masters and in the criminal field: Carter v. State, dealing with an appeal from the decision of the trial court to extend probation after the probation period expired. Samantha has argued twice in the Court of Appeals, Maryland’s highest court. In her first case, in 2005, she argued Motor Vehicle Adminstration v. Weller, dealing with the admissibility of PBT tests in administrative proceedings, and in 2014, she argued In Re Victoria C., dealing with third-party visitation – sibling visitation.

Her current practice involves litigation of family law matters as well as personal injury, employment, contract, debt collection, consumer, landlord/tenant, criminal, and general civil matters. She also handles adoptions and guardianships. She has been appointed by the courts on a number of occasions to represent children in the course of divorce cases as a Best Interests Attorney. Samantha serves the community by volunteering for the Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service and the domestic self-represented litigant clinic for Carroll County. She has served on the Judicial Nominations Commission and is the chair of the Family Law Subcommittee for the Carroll County Bar Association. She has been appointed by the Circuit Court for Carroll County to serve as a settlement conference officer. She is currently the chairperson of the Ethics Panel for the Board of Education for Carroll County. She was selected by the judicial nominating commission to the list sent to the governor for consideration for the last vacancy on the Circuit Court for Carroll County. She is a member of the Maryland Association of Justice, the Maryland State Bar Association, and the Carroll County Bar Association.