Brad Smith
Former Director, Federal Election Commission
Outside Counsel


One of the nation's leading authorities on Election Law and Campaign
Finance, Brad Smith served as Commissioner, Vice Chairman, and Chairman
of the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Nominated by President Clinton
in February of 2000 to fill a Republican-designated seat on the
Commission, Brad was confirmed by the Senate in May of 2000 and took his
seat the following month.

Prior to his nomination, Brad had become a fixture in the national
discussion on campaign finance, and was called "the most sought after
witness" when Congress considered campaign finance issues. His writings
have appeared in such academic journals as the Yale Law Journal,
Georgetown Law Journal, and Pennsylvania Law Review, and in popular
publications such as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and National
Review.

In 2001, Princeton University Press published Brad's book, "Unfree
Speech: The Folly of Campaign Finance Reform," which was praised by
syndicated columnist George Will as "the year's most important book on
governance." The Times of London called it "a much needed dose of
realism which has relevance far beyond America," and Publishers Weekly
described it as "a marvelous contrarian view: moderate in tone, elegant
in language, clever in argument."

Named FEC Chairman in January 2004, Brad oversaw implementation of the
McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill, and successfully fought to
increase due process protections for defendants in FEC enforcement
actions. Brad has spoken at over 30 of the nation's law schools,
including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, Chicago, Michigan, and NYU.
His many media credits include national appearances on ABC, NBC, PBS,
Fox, CNBC, MSNBC, C-Span, and Bloomberg Media, including such programs
as Hardball with Chris Matthews, and the O'Reilly Factor. He has also
appeared on numerous local and national radio programs, and made
television appearances in Great Britain, Japan, and Canada.