Founder and Managing Attorney

Janine L. Smith is the Founder and Managing Director of Janine Smith Law Firm, LLC, a business and civil litigation firm located in Birmingham, Alabama.  Janine has over twenty years’ experience as an attorney practicing in the areas of creditors rights and bankruptcy (including landlord/tenant, collections and replevins), real estate (including commercial and consumer property litigation and quiet title actions) and financial services (including defense of consumer law claims and mortgage foreclosure).  Janine is also an Alabama certified mediator.  Janine’s diverse knowledge base and areas of expertise are the result of her having practiced in both law firm and corporate in-house legal department settings. She has extensive experience representing landlords, property owners, creditors, financial institutions, debt servicers, collection law firms and collection agencies.  Janine has represented clients in individual and class actions involving claims arising under TCPA, FDCPA, RESPA, TILA, FCRA, as well as claims involving general contract disputes, wrongful foreclosure, lien rights/perfection issues, real property title issues, wrongful repossession/replevin and preference litigation in bankruptcy.

Janine is a member of NACA- the National Creditors Bar Association and an active member of the Alabama State Bar where she serves as Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee; Immediate Past Chair of the Leadership Forum Alumni Section (Class VII); and member of the Bankruptcy and Commercial Law Section and the Solo and Small Firm Section.  She is also active in the Birmingham Bar Association where she has served on the Executive Committee, as past Chair and Board Member of the Women Lawyers Section and as a member of the Bankruptcy and Commercial Law Section.  Janine is a Fellow of the Birmingham Bar Foundation and past Chair of the Legal Aid Society of Birmingham Board of Trustees.  Janine has served on the board of many civic organizations, namely Girls Incorporated of Central Alabama (Chair and Trustee), the Junior Board of the YWCA and Alabama Appleseed.

Janine earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Alabama in 1997 and her Juris Doctorate from the University of Alabama School of Law in 2000, where she was a member of the John A. Campbell Moot Court Board, the Bankruptcy Moot Court Team, and the recipient of the Outstanding Oral Advocacy Award.

Janine is licensed to practice before all state courts in Alabama, and is admitted to the bar of the Northern, Middle, and Southern District Courts of Alabama, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court.