LAWRENCE B. SMITH
Attorney at Law
e-mail: Lbsmithaty@aol.com
1951 University of Virginia, BA in Political Science
1951-53 Graduate USAF-OCS; served in Japan and Korea as a radar Aircraft Controller, Fighter Intercept Officer.
1954 Administrative Assistant to County Executive, Fairfax County, Va.; also Director of Maintenance, Buildings & Grounds.
1957 Stanford University Law School, Juris Doctor.
1958-64 Admitted Arizona Bar, practiced law in Phoenix; first with Gust. Rosenfeld, Divelbess & Robinette; then helped found a firm now with 20 lawyers. (Originally Randolph Smith & Warner; now Warner Angle Roper & Hallam.)
1964-65 Staff training officer, Peace Corps/Washington.
1966-67 Lear Jet business, last position as West Coast Regional Sales Manager and assistant to the president of Lear Jet Industries, Inc.; company hopelessly insolvent and sold.
1967-68 Staff lawyer, Office of General Counsel, FAA Hqs., Washington, DC, in the branch with oversight of the agency's regulatory enforcement program.
1968-70 Concerned with the grossly silly and unfair cases I saw, worked on a book about FAA enforcement. Then set that aside in early 1970 to help a friend in Phoenix start up a company to work with electric-field technology. (Which prevented completion of the book.)
1971-79 Branched off to found Bioelectric Systems, Inc., with 27 stockholders. Pioneered use of electro-static fields to calm nervous racehorses. Endorsed by top trainers, acceptance of BIOFIELD® was immediate, but unique electronic reliability problems cropped up and turned success into a years-long, one-man R&D effort to solve them.
1980 Took a break from racehorses and worked six months as a consultant to the US General Accounting Office on the legal aspects of FAA enforcement. This provided the foundation for my law review article and motivation to work to force reform of FAA enforcement policies.
1981-83 Electric-field R&D; FAA related legal work; shut down work with racehorses, and returned to Arizona.
1984 Some general legal work in 1984. Since May 1985 have worked as a one-man public-interest lawyer dedicated to forcing reform of FAA's regulatory enforcement program. That work has reached a point where the only thing that will do the job is a book.
Also -- President, Phoenix Jr. Chamber of Commerce (1961-62); Secretary, Jaycees Community Welfare Foundation (1962-64); previously a member of Maricopa County Bar Ass'n, American Bar Ass'n, and American Trial Lawyers Ass'n, Lawyer-Pilots Bar Ass'n.
Traveled in all 50 states, Mexico, Canada, much of Europe and South America, Israel; military service in Japan and Korea during the Korean War.
1500 flying hours in a wide variety of aircraft. Hold commercial pilot certificate, multi-engine, instrument and certified flight instructor ratings.
lance, did the press stack the deck?, The Washington Post, Oct. 4, 1977 (full-length op-ed column).
faa punitive certificate sanctions: the emperor wears no clothes; or, how do you punish a propeller?, 14 Transp. L.J. 59-100 (1985) ("Emperor").
faa blackjack, Professional Pilot at 91, Feb. 1981.
faa: illegal disciplinarian?, Aviation Digest at 26, Sep. 1987.
faa abuse of power: a case study; the go group unlimited, tucson, arizona, May 1988 (booklet published privately).
faa enforcement: time for reform, FBO magazine [Fixed Base Operator] at 50, Sep-Oct 1989.
are basic faa procedures legal?, Western Flyer at 8, Sec. A, 2nd Issue, Oct. 1989.
can the faa take your ticket?, The Southern Aviator at 22, Sep. 1994 (also published in two other aviation journals).
regulatory commission would reign in unelected bureaucrats, General Aviation News & Flyer at 15, 1st Issue Jun., 1995.
opinion from a member, Lawyer-Pilots Bar Ass'n Journal at 6, Summer 1995 (same article as preceding; also published in three other aviation journals).
faa drops repo man case at last minute, Atlantic Flyer Oct. 1998; also published in The Flyer (formerly Western Flyer and General Aviation News and Flyer).
ADMITTED -- Arizona State Bar (1958); US Supreme Court (1965); US Courts of Appeals: DC, 1st, 2nd, 5th and 9th.
INTERESTS -- General practice, personal injury, real estate, construction, probate, aviation and administrative law.
LEGAL ACTIVITY -- When first returned to Arizona, temporary work with a small general practice firm. From 1985 on, intensive litigation and appellate work, much of it involving administrative law, including a half-dozen petitions for certiorari to the Supreme Court; all as part of my FAA reform effort. Tried a dozen FAA aviation enforcement cases, from one-day long to 2-1/2 weeks. Familiar with FTCA and Bivens actions.
PC literate since 1985; do my own word processing; home office equipped with Corel WP Suite 8, HP LaserJet 5L, HP Scanner, fax machine, dedicated phone line, modem and copier.
REFERENCES -- (Removed for privacy.)