Jasmine D. Smith

Jasmine Smith is a first-generation college graduate.

“No person in my family had completed a traditional four-year degree, so I consider my bachelor’s degree, my graduate degree, and my law degree at the top of my list of top accomplishments,” she said.

At Robinson Gray Stepp & Lafitte, Smith is an associate who concentrates her practice on commercial litigation, professional liability and ethics, probate and estate litigation, and appellate advocacy, focusing on family law.

Smith has dedicated her 10-year career to laying a path for the generation coming behind her and mentoring younger attorneys as they develop their own careers. At her firm, she co-chairs the summer law clerk program which offers law students the opportunity to develop professionally through legal work and networking. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor of the Moot Court Program at the University of South Carolina School of Law.

Before enrolling in law school, Smith earned an Education Specialist (Ed.S) degree in counselor education from USC, a degree that is 30 hours more than a typical Master’s degree. She considers that degree crucial to her practice.

“My background in counseling helps me understand how others think and experience traumatic issues,” she said. “That understanding helps me assist clients in resolving complex legal issues with compassion and empathy.”

In fact, the desire to help people inspired Smith to pursue a career in law.

The legal profession is similar to the counseling profession, which is why lawyers are often termed attorney and counselor at law,” she said. “I have always been interested in understanding and resolving complex issues.”

It’s no surprise that Smith believes if she had not become a lawyer, she might have pursued a career as a marriage and family therapist.

Her favorite movie about attorneys is "Just Mercy," adapted from a memoir by Bryan Stevenson, a Harvard-educated attorney who dedicated his career to representing poor clients in the South and was a co-founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. The movie focuses on his work and his clients, including Walter McMillian, whom Stevenson began representing in the late 1980s when he was on death row for killing a young white woman in Monroeville, Ala. McMillian was ultimately exonerated.

Associate, Robinson Gray Stepp & Lafitte Columbia

After spending 35 years representing domestic and foreign institutional investors and union pension funds, directorial misconduct, and securities fraud matters, Gregg Levin takes pride in the role he has played in building the securities practice at Motley Rice.

Today, that practice is a nationally-recognize leader in that area, Levin says. The firm has served as lead counsel or co-lead counsel in scores of securities class actions throughout the country and, along with its institutional investor clients, has recovered more than $2 billion for investors, including an nearly $810 million settlement that was negotiated in September 2021 on behalf of investors in the In re Twitter Inc. securities litigation.

“I am proud to have played a role in litigating that case over an almost 5-year period and gratified that the settlement (and Motley Rice’s work in the securities space) earned our department the honor of being named a 2021 Securities Practice Group of the Year by Law360,” he said.

In addition to his role as a member at Motley Rice, Levin is a vice president of the Institute for Law and Economic Policy. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Rochester and received his law degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law.

Levin chose a career in law for its challenges and rewards.

“Not only can lawyers assist others who are in need, but they also can help affect change while doing so,” he said. “Additionally, the work is stimulating and intellectually challenging and it has been a privilege to be on the front line of many cuttingedge issues and cases.”

Levin recalls a movie from his past that still resonates with him. "Reversal of Fortune" tells the story of the appeal filed by Claus von Bulow who was convicted of injecting his wife with a lethal dose of insulin.

“I remember being struck by the efforts of Alan Dershowitz and his team as they painstakingly reviewed and mastered the trial court record and worked together to plan an effective appellate strategy,” he said. “Having written many briefs and argued several appeals, I can honestly say that prosecuting a successful appeal does take a village in addition to a keen understanding of all parts of the record.”

GREGG LEVIN

Member, Motley Rice Mount Pleasant