Kenya Smith

Biography

Professor Kenya Smith joined the faculty of the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center in 2024. He has over 25 years of experience as an educator, executive, and attorney.

He previously taught Business Entities, Contracts, Obligations, and Special Problems in Business Law, among other courses, at Southern University Law Center. He has also taught at the University of Idaho College of Law, Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law, Arizona Summit Law School, and St. Thomas University School of Law.

After earning his law degree at the University of Wisconsin Law School, Professor Smith returned to his native Louisiana to launch his legal career with Adams and Reese in New Orleans. As a member of the firm’s transactions and corporate advisory services team, Smith represented clients in tax, real estate, energy, general commercial, and corporate governance matters. From 2003 to 2010, he served in several senior executive positions for the City of New Orleans, including Executive Counsel to the Mayor, Deputy Mayor for Intergovernmental Relations, and Deputy Mayor for Community Development.

While serving the City of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Professor Smith worked with local agencies, the White House, and U.S. Congress to secure emergency and long-term recovery funding for public, residential, and commercial infrastructure repairs, and enhancements. He was also instrumental in the passage of the Go Zone Act and other economic development incentive programs. Immediately following his time in city government, he leveraged his crisis management and disaster recovery experience to serve as an advisor to the BP’s Gulf Coast Recovery Leadership team in the two years following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill.

Professor Smith’s scholarship focuses on the formation and taxation of business associations, constitutional law, and legislation, and has been published in the Louisiana Law Review, Marquette Law Review, Michigan Journal of Law Reform, University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law, Rutgers University Law Review, William & Mary Business Law Review and Tulane Law Review.

Professor Smith earned his bachelor’s degree cum laude from Southern University at New Orleans and his J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School.