John M. Smith

John works for US defense company Raytheon, where he is the counsel to its cybersecurity department, headquartered near Dallas.  Previously, John served as Associate Counsel to President George W. Bush.  At the White House, he was the primary legal advisor to the Homeland Security Council and its staff.  Working with senior lawyers in the national security and intelligence communities, he addressed legal issues involving cybersecurity, counter-terrorism, emergency preparedness and response, transportation security, and WMD defense.   

Before the White House, he clerked together with his wife Hannah for then-Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and then practiced law at Covington & Burling in Washington, DC.

John graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa and Senior Class President and authored a thesis on the post-Soviet transition.  He received his J.D. magna cum laude from Brigham Young University Law School, where he was lead articles editor of its Law Review.  He served as an LDS missionary in Ukraine and Russia and then as a US Army reservist for a decade.