Alison Smith, the Jamaican-American who shattered a nearly 100-year old barrier to become the first black woman to serve as president of the Broward County Bar Association (BCBA) in Florida, is not done achieving lofty goals.

Smith’s presidency of the largest voluntary bar association in the tri-county area of Dade, Broward and Palm Beach ended in June 2023, but almost immediately, aided by BCBA’s Executive Director Braulio Rosa, she set about to once again make an indelible mark. She ran for and was just elected to the Florida Bar Board of Governors, after her opponent withdrew from the race.

The Florida Bar is the regulatory authority for attorneys in the state of Florida, responsible for a myriad of matters that relate to the practice of law, including creating policy that promotes professionalism and integrity and addressing issues of attorney misconduct.

Smith’s achievement is significant because being a member of the board positions her to eventually seek the presidency of the entire state Bar, comprised of over 100,000 attorneys. A Jamaican woman has never been president of the Florida Bar, which has been in existence since 1889.

The Florida Bar has just elected its first African-American woman president in Sia Baker-Barnes, a successful lawyer from West Palm Beach. Smith and Baker-Barnes are close friends.

“I am so humbled, honoured, and passionate about serving my constituency, the 17th circuit, which is one of the largest circuits in the state. I am simply pinching myself,” Smith told the
Jamaica Observer in a telephone conversation from her Miramar, Miami, home yesterday.

“I could never have dreamed when I was growing up in Jamaica, in the country, that I would be sitting at the tables I am able to sit at. This is a huge dream of mine, and I intend to make the whole world aware that ‘wi likkle but wi tallawah’,” she gushed.

Smith was born in New York but at one-month-old was taken by her parents, Fay and Donald Smith, an attorney who practised in Black River, St Elizabeth, to Jamaica where she grew up. She migrated to the United States in 1996 after graduating from the Manchester High School in Mandeville, Manchester.

Regarding herself as “very Jamaican”, even as she embraced her new home, the former member of the talent group, ASHE, in Kingston said: “I’m extremely proud of my heritage and everyone who knows me here knows that I am an unofficial ambassador for Jamaica.”

Smith began blazing trails when she became the first black woman to be named partner at her Hollywood, Florida, law firm Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Berman, which had been in business for a quarter of a century.

Smith has always shone, notably becoming the valedictorian of her law class at Nova Southeastern University and graduating magna cum laude from the Shepard Broad College of Law at the university. Before law school, she earned a BSc in Psychology with a minor in legal studies. She is the current chair of the membership committee of the board of governors for her alma mater.

She spends much of her time giving back to the community, and is especially interested in programming that benefits the Caribbean-American community. As a past president of the Caribbean Bar Association, she created mentorship initiatives to benefit minority students.

Smith is on the Board of Directors for Legal Aid and is a member of the Florida Association for Women Lawyers. Her legal practice is focused on labour and employment, municipal, appellate, and administrative and regulatory matters.