David Randolph Smith

Mr. Smith has been a trial attorney for 40 years and was a professor of law at Vanderbilt Law School. For the past twenty years, he has represented individuals in plaintiff’s personal injury litigation. He is the founder of DRS Law, a top-rated personal injury law firm in Nashville, Tennessee. DRS Law has grown into a five-lawyer team that includes his three sons.

EXPERIENCE

Mr. Smith has been recognized by his peers as one of the Best Lawyers in America in Personal Injury Litigation and as one of the Best Lawyers in Tennessee. The Business Tennessee Best Lawyers List described Mr. Smith as “An all-star across the state.”

He has tried over 100 cases in state and federal courts throughout the nation, in Tennessee, Texas, Missouri, Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, Indiana, Mississippi, Florida, Ohio, South Carolina, Virginia, Montana, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Washington D.C.

In 2006 he obtained a record $7.2 million verdict in a wrongful death case in Warren County, Tennessee. He served as plaintiffs’ counsel in the Tri-State Crematory class action litigation against Georgia Farm Bureau ($80 million judgment) and represented class members who received $36 million in settlements.

Mr. Smith has represented individuals in several landmark cases before the Tennessee Supreme Court that resulted in changes in the law that make our communities safer, including:

• Jordan v. Baptist Three Rivers: holding for the first time that a plaintiff could recover damages for the loss of her mother’s emotional support.

• Ashe v. Radiation Oncology Associates: adopting the legal standard proposed by Mr. Smith, which has protected the rights of patients across Tennessee to be informed participants in their health care decisions.

• Bennett v. Trevecca Nazarene University: holding that those injured by others’ negligence could recover where the responsible party had assumed a duty of care.