Jim Smith brings over thirty years of experience advising innovators and founders, executive leadership and Boards of Directors, entrepreneurs, venture capital and private equity funds, and investors on business matters, and is a seasoned advisor with regard to business structural and governance matters and complex legal, financial and strategic matters. A lawyer and certified public accountant (registered inactive) by profession, he is nationally recognized by Best Lawyers in America and Chambers and Partners USA for his work in business law, with particular recognition in the areas of business organizations, corporate law, corporate governance law, tax law, banking and finance law, mergers and acquisitions law, real estate law, securities and capital markets law, securitization and structured finance law, and trusts and estates. Over Jim’s career, he has worked with businesses spanning the full business lifecycle – from concept and startup planning and formation to mature operational, growth, go-to-market and scaling stage (including capital raising), to strategic partnerships and exit transactions and succession planning. He has advised companies across a wide range of industries and served as a trusted advisor in high-stakes transactions, including emerging and high-growth industries, healthcare and healthcare technology, financial and fintech, manufacturing, digital media, e-commerce, retail technology and consumer packaged goods, logistics and real estate development.

Jim served as a member of the steering committee for the formation and development of the Arkansas Research and Technology Park and since its inception over twenty years ago has served as Secretary of its Board of Directors and general legal counsel. From August 2020 through August 2022, Jim was a member of the executive leadership team of a medical cannabis multi-state operator initially serving as chief general legal counsel and director of mergers and acquisitions and concluding his tenure as President of Business. During his tenure, the company grew from its initial, prefunded concept start up stage to successfully raising and deploying capital in excess of $350 million and employing over 1,000 employees in four states. Today, the company is the leading medical marijuana owner and operator of fully vertically integrated cultivation and dispensary facilities in each of the states in which it operates.

Jim is a founding partner of Smith Hurst, PLC, an award winning regional law firm based in Northwest Arkansas. Smith Hurst, PLC was recognized as Start Up Business of the Year by the City of Fayetteville, Arkansas Chamber of Commerce in 2012 and as Small Business of the Year in 2014. It is a Tier 1 rated Law Firm in Arkansas in the fields of Mergers and Acquisitions, Corporate Law, Real Estate Law, Tax Law and Trusts and Estates by Best Law Firms in America and Chambers and Partners USA.

Mid-South Super Lawyers has repeatedly named Jim one of the top fifty lawyers in Arkansas. In the inaugural edition of The Arkansas 200, published by Arkansas Business, he was recognized among Arkansas’s top influencers, and has subsequently been honored in The Arkansas 250. He has been regularly recognized in the Arkansas Money & Politics list of Top 100 Professionals in Arkansas and a member of the Legal Elite. He has also been recognized by Chambers and Partners USA as a top lawyer in Corporate Commercial and Corporate Taxation law. Jim is currently recognized by Best Lawyers in America as the Lawyer of the Year in the Northwest Arkansas region for Mergers and Acquisitions Law and has previously been honored as Lawyer of the Year in the fields of Corporate Law and Tax Law.

Jim is deeply engaged in economic development, venture capital, and education across the region. He is currently serving in his second term as a Commissioner on the Arkansas Economic Development Commission under appointment by Governor Asa Hutchinson and his second term as a member of the Board of Trustees of Arkansas Tech University (Chairman, 2023) under appointment by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Jim has served on the Executive Committee and as the co-chairman of the Arkansas Venture Capital Forum, chairman of the Tax Section of the Arkansas Bar Association, and as a member of Board of Directors of Fayetteville, Arkansas Chamber of Commerce (Chairman, 2018). For over twenty years, he has served as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Arkansas School of Law where he currently teaches the Law of Venture Capital and has previously taught courses in the fields of Mergers and Acquisitions, Securities Regulation, Private Equity Investing, and Corporate Practice Ethics. An avid enthusiast and supporter of live music, Jim is also a member of the Board of Directors of The House of Songs, a nonprofit corporation based in Bentonville, Arkansas and Austin, Texas which has the mission of uniting musicians from around the world.

Jim has been recognized by the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal as part of its C- Suite Honors, an award given to the top business executives in the region and in 2001, was inducted into the Arkansas Tech University Hall of Distinction.