Elizabeth Smiley

Elizabeth Smiley joined Baron & Budd’s Los Angeles office in 2018 as an associate in the Firm’s Class Action Litigation Group. There she helps bring nationwide, multi-million-dollar lawsuits to successful conclusion on behalf of our clients.

In her work at Baron & Budd, Ms. Smiley is a trial attorney protecting the rights of consumers from corporate fraud. In 2020, she was part of the trial team that won the largest verdict in the State of Hawaii against a pair of pharmaceutical companies that were shown at trial to have suppressed research into critical drug safety issues and failed to warn consumers about known risks associated with a popular cardiovascular medication. She was also part of the appellate team representing the State of Hawaii at the Hawaii Supreme Court regarding the same case. In 2022, Public Justice nominated Ms. Smiley for Trial Lawyer of the Year for her work on that case.

Ms. Smiley has also been an integral part of the trial teams for several cases in opioid litigation across the country. In 2022, she was trial counsel for the State of New Mexico in an eight-week trial against a number of major pharmacies responsible for contributing to the opioid epidemic. She was also on the trial team representing the State of Michigan in opioid litigation against a major pharmacy. Ms. Smiley was the lead associate handling the abatement and damages witnesses for both cases, which included seeking billions of dollars on behalf of each client.

When Ms. Smiley is not working on cases against the pharmaceutical industry, she works on class-action cases against major institutions, such as banks and mortgage brokers, regarding large scale corporate fraud. She has worked on cases ranging from insurance and banking fraud to fraudulent concealment of product safety defects. Ms. Smiley is proud to use her experience to hold companies accountable for their actions and protect consumers.

Ms. Smiley attended the University of Arizona where she received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree in Finance. She then obtained her Juris Doctor from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law.

While in law school, Ms. Smiley served as the Senior Managing Editor for the Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law. She also interned at the Pima County Public Defender’s office where she aided attorneys in providing high quality representation to indigent defendants. Before coming to Baron & Budd, Ms. Smiley clerked at the Los Angeles Superior Court for the Honorable Elaine Lu.

Ms. Smiley grew up in Arizona with a passion for arts and performance. She studied ballet through the Royal Academy of Dance for 12 years and minored in ballet in college.

Ms. Smiley first became interested in law while participating in mock trial programs in high school and college. She was a national finalist in several mock trial competitions at both the college and law school levels of competition. Ms. Smiley has a passion for teaching trial skills and advocacy. She is the Head Coach of UCLA’s undergraduate mock trial program and she is also on the Board of Directors of the American Mock Trial Association.

In her free time, Ms. Smiley takes advantage of the thriving performing arts scene in Los Angeles and attends as many ballet and theatrical performances as she can.

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Publications

• Elizabeth Smiley, Marijuana & Other Drugs: Legalize or Decriminalize?, 33 Ariz. J. Int’l & Comp. L. 825 (2016)