Brian Smith is a 1997 graduate of the University of Montana School of Law. He was initially admitted to the North Dakota and Minnesota State Bars in 1997 and admitted in Montana in 1998. (Two bar exams at a time was enough.) He did not keep North Dakota and Minnesota Bar licenses but is admitted in all State and Federal Courts in Montana. In the over twenty years that Brian has been in practice he has spent about half the time in private practice and the other half in the trenches as a full time public defender, both for the State of Montana and the County of Missoula. He is a member of the Federal Criminal Justice Act panel.

Brian focuses his practice in the area of criminal law. He is the chair of the State Bar Criminal Law Section and a frequent conference speaker on the subject. The Montana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers named him co-Lawyer of the Year in 2014.

Brian is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Montana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the American Bar Association, and the National Association for Public Defense. He is a Trustee for the State Bar of Montana and a member of the State Bar Technology Committee.