Vitals

J.D. (cum laude), University of Minnesota Law School, 1983; Minnesota Law Review.

B.A. St. Olaf College, 1979. Phi Beta Kappa.

Clerk to the Honorable Gerald W. Heaney, Eighth Circuit, 1983-85

Louis Smith devotes his practice to water resources law and strategic partnerships.

Mr. Smith has practiced water resources law for nearly forty years, representing watershed districts and other clients across the state of Minnesota. Mr. Smith published the Watershed Rulemaking Handbook for the Minnesota Association of Watershed Districts. He counseled the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District in structuring the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes Clean Water Partnership, the largest urban lake restoration project in the United States and recipient of five environmental awards, including the CF Industries National Watershed Award and the Minnesota Governor’s Award for Excellence in Pollution Prevention. He counseled the Brown’s Creek Watershed District through the development and construction of a major flood mitigation and trout stream protection project and adoption of comprehensive rules. He counseled the Rice Creek Watershed District through the adoption of one of the state’s first Comprehensive Wetland Protection and Management Plans, and also serves as legal counsel for the Riley Purgatory Bluff Creek Watershed District and the Red River Watershed Management Board.

Mr. Smith has broad experience in structuring public-private partnerships and providing strategic counsel to clients confronting a wide array of public policy challenges. In 1991-92, Mr. Smith served as Deputy Hennepin County Attorney, where he was second in command of an office of 125 attorneys responsible for felony prosecution and civil representation of Hennepin County. Mr. Smith lectures and writes frequently on a broad range of topics relating to water resources, land use, and strategic partnerships. Mr. Smith is past Chair of the Rivers Council of Minnesota Board of Directors.  He was appointed by Governor Tim Pawlenty to the Clean Water Council in 2007, reappointed by Governor Mark Dayton in 2011, and served as the council’s first chair. Mr. Smith teaches water law at the University of Minnesota Law School.

Mr. Smith graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1979 from St. Olaf College, and graduated cum laude in 1983 from the University of Minnesota Law School, where he was an associate editor of the Minnesota Law Review. He was a law clerk to the Honorable Gerald W. Heaney, United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.