Smaby, Jonathan

Jonathan Smaby has served as the Executive Director of the Texas Center for Legal Ethics in Austin since 2009. The Center promotes the ethical practice of law by attorneys and educates the public regarding legal ethics and the justice system. The Center also administers the Justice James A. Baker Guide to Ethics and Professionalism in Texas CLE course, a four-hour program required of all newly-licensed attorneys by the Supreme Court of Texas.

Prior to being selected as Executive Director, Smaby practiced law in Dallas, where he was the managing shareholder of Roberts & Smaby, PC. He formerly served as Chair of the Consortium on Professionalism Initiatives for the American Bar Association and was a longtime member of the Advertising Review Committee of the State Bar of Texas. More recently, he served on the Succession Planning Workgroup for the State Bar of Texas that resulted in the creation of a webpage and forms by which attorneys can designate a custodian-attorney in advance in case of their disability or death. He is the editor and primary author of the popular “Ethics Question of the Month” column in the Texas Bar Journal, which is the second most popular feature in the Journal per a recent reader survey.

Smaby is a frequent speaker, primarily on the topics of legal ethics, professionalism, behavioral ethics, and implicit bias. He has spoken at events sponsored by the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Texas, the University of Texas Law School, the NAACP, and numerous local bar associations throughout Texas. He is a member of the College of the State Bar of Texas and a Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation.

Smaby is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and the University of Michigan Law School, and he is licensed to practice law in Texas and Minnesota.