Smith, Abbe

Abbe Lyn Smith (born September 22, 1956) is an American criminal defense attorney and professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center. Smith is Director of the Criminal Defense and Prisoner Advocacy Clinic and co-director of the E. Barrett Prettyman Fellowship Program. Before joining the faculty at Georgetown Law, Smith worked as a public defender in Philadelphia for many years and she was also on the faculty at Harvard Law School. Professor Smith regularly writes and comments on criminal defense, the criminal justice system, criminal prosecution, legal ethics, and juvenile justice. Smith wrote a memoir about her experience of helping Patsy Kelly Jarrett earn her freedom from a conviction for which Jarrett maintained her innocence.