After taking some time off to raise her family, Attorney Karissa Smith has returned to the workforce with our law office.  Karissa brings over 25 years of experience which began while still in school and clerking for a Federal District Court Judge in Danville, Illinois, and at the University of Illinois Legal Counsel at Urbana-Champaign.

Shortly after graduating from the University of Illinois School of Law, Karissa volunteered for the Land of Lincoln Legal Aid in Champaign and for the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, Volunteer Lawyers for the Homeless.

Her experience includes working for a civil defense law firm, where she managed a caseload of product liability defense litigation for Fortune 500 companies, personal injury defense litigation, and employment law disputes.  Prior experience includes working for general practice law firms as a litigation associate.

Karissa graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1992 with a B.A. in History, and a second field of concentration in math and science.

She proceeded to get her J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law at Urbana-Champaign in May 1995. Karissa was admitted to the Illinois Bar in November of 1995. She was then Admitted to the bar of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois in April 1998 and to the bar of the U.S. District Court: Northern Illinois in April 2004.