Marc J. Smith is a co-founding member of the firm and leads the firm’s employment practice. Mr. Smith has focused his practice in employment law since 1990 and represents both business owners and individuals.  Mr. Smith regularly provides advice to his clients with respect to the many facets of the employment relationship, including issues relating to hiring, discharge, discipline, discrimination, harassment, family and medical leave, disability, wage and hour matters, and restrictive covenants (including non-competition and non-solicitation agreements).  Mr. Smith has substantial experience negotiating and drafting executive, employment and severance agreements, employee handbooks and other employment related documents. Mr. Smith has litigated hundreds of cases and he has successfully defended and pursued a diverse array of employment claims in both the state and federal court systems and at the administrative level.

Recently, Mr. Smith represented 14 former employees of a local government contractor who were seeking compensation for their accrued vacation balances that existed at the time they resigned to join another company.  The Circuit Court for Montgomery County ruled in the former employees' favor, holding that they were entitled to compensation for their accrued vacation balances despite the fact that their former employer had a policy in place that called for forfeiture of unused vacation.  In a case of first impression in Maryland, Maryland's Court of Special Appeals affirmed the ruling of the Circuit Court and ruled that the employees were indeed entitled to be compensated for their accrued vacation balances, despite the employer's policy.

Mr. Smith is a Montgomery County native, and a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill law school. Following his law school graduation in 1990, Mr. Smith spent 7 years working as an employment litigation associate with a large Atlanta-based firm. While working in Atlanta, Mr. Smith represented large corporate clients, including Northwest Airlines, HBO & Company, and GTE/Contel Cellular in employment related litigation throughout the southeast. Following his return to the Washington metropolitan area, Mr. Smith and his 2 partners established Smith, Lease & Goldstein, LLC.