Phillip M. Smith is a Special Partner at NeunerPate in Lafayette. His practice is focused primarily on maritime law and personal-injury litigation, and he regularly defends clients in Jones Act cases and other maritime matters including oil and gas casualties, property damage claims, construction, and products liability. For the past six years, he has coached the LSU Law Admiralty Moot Court Team that competes annually in a national competition against other law schools. While in law school, he was a two-time national champion at the John R. Brown Admiralty Moot Court Competition. He also served as the Executive Senior Editor of the Louisiana Law Review, and he published an article on recoverable damages for Jones Act seamen: A Watery Grave for Unseaworthiness Punitive Damages: McBride v. Estis Well Service, L.L.C., 76 LA. L. REV. 619 (2015). In 2016, he graduated from the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center magna cum laude and Order of the Coif. He is a member of the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel and Admiralty Law Section of the Federal Bar Association.