Mark W. Smith retired from the partnership in December 1997. Mr. Smith retired from the firm's San Francisco office. He was a business litigator concentrating in the areas of securities and other complex business litigation, and a former chair of the firm's Securities Litigation Group. He had handled numerous securities fraud class actions, M&A litigation and cases involving the America's Cup and the television rights to college football.
Mr. Smith was a member of the State Bar of California and the National Board of Trustees of the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America. He was co-author of the book Sample Jury Instructions in Civil Antitrust Cases and has written numerous articles, including "The Demand Requirement and the Special Litigation Committee in Derivative Actions" (with Paul H. Dawes).
Before entering the practice of law he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Mary M. Schroeder of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.