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DeMaurice F. "De" Smith (born February 3, 1964) is the Executive Director of the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA). He was elected unanimously in 2009 and reelected in 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2021. He played a significant role in helping NFL players and owners come to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement to end the 2011 NFL Lockout, and negotiated another NFL collective bargaining agreement in 2020. As of 2022, Smith is the longest-serving executive director of a major sports union. He previously worked as a trial lawyer and litigation partner in Washington, D.C.

Education
Smith received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and his B.A. degree in political science from Cedarville University, a Christian college in Ohio.

Attorney
Smith served as Counsel to then-Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder in the U.S. Department of Justice before entering private law practice. He spent nine years with the U.S. Attorney's office and one with the Department of Justice, working on issues like national security and prison construction.

From 2000 - 2009, he was a trial lawyer and litigation partner in the Washington, D.C. offices of Latham & Watkins and Patton Boggs, serving as the chair of these two firms' government investigations and white-collar practice groups. Smith has also represented Fortune 500 companies, and argued numerous cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Executive Director, NFLPA
On March 15, 2009, Smith was elected unanimously by a board of active player representatives to become the executive director of the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA). Although Smith lacked football experience, his ties to presidential power and business experts helped give him an advantage over other potential candidates like Troy Vincent, Trace Armstrong, and sports attorney David Cornwell. He was elected to his second and third terms in 2012 and 2015, was reelected unanimously for his fourth term in 2017, and the board reelected him to serve a final term in 2021.

ESPN described Smith as taking on the "toughest job" in sports when he was first elected to lead the NFLPA in 2009. He played a significant role in helping players and NFL owners come to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement to end the 2011 NFL lockout, and negotiated another NFL collective bargaining agreement in 2020. When the Covid-19 pandemic emerged ahead of the 2020 NFL season, he led negotiations to form testing, safety, and player opt-out protocol that allowed all 256 regular-season games to be played with no cancellations.

Smith has become known for focusing on enhanced player health and safety. He testified to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2009 about the issues of concussions and brain trauma affecting NFL players, and negotiated new protocol that requires independent medical professionals on the sideline to clear every player that believes they experienced a concussion. According to GQ, "the health and safety protocols instituted to protect the players over that time (with Smith as Executive Director) have been almost exclusively a result of the activist strong-arming of the NFL Players Association."

Co-Chair, OneTeam Partners
In 2019 DeMaurice Smith worked with Tony Clark, head of the Major League Baseball Players Association, to form a company called OneTeam Partners. The company combines the intellectual property rights of NFL and MLB players into a large pool, and negotiates usage of these rights within commercial products like sports trading cards and video games. As of 2022, Smith serves as co-chair.

Board involvement and public speaking
Smith has been co-chair of the Board of OneTeam Partners since 2019. He is also on the Prince George's County Lacrosse Club Board of Directors.

Smith spoke at the commencements for Delaware State University in 2022, the University of Virginia School of Law in May 2015 and University of Maryland in 2011.