About Joel Smith
Prior to joining the firm, Joel Smith previously served as a Judge on the Mississippi Court of Appeals. He was first appointed to the Court of Appeals by Governor Tate Reeves in January 2021. In the special election that followed, he was elected without opposition and served as Judge until January 2025. Before his appointment to the bench, Smith served for 20 years as a prosecutor in the Second Judicial District of Harrison, Hancock and Stone counties. He first served as an assistant district attorney for 11 years and became trial division leader.
He was elected as District Attorney in 2011 and was reelected for two more terms before he was appointed to the bench. Before joining the District Attorney's office, Smith practiced corporate defense and premises liability litigation with the firm of Bryant, Clark, Dukes & Blakeslee. Joel is chairman of the Mississippi Children's Justice Act Task Force and previously served on the Mississippi Corrections and Criminal Justice Oversight Committee. He is past president of the Mississippi Prosecutors Association, served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Prosecutors Section of the Mississippi Bar and was a member of the National District Attorneys Association.
He was also appointed by Governor Phil Bryant to serve on the Mississippi School Safety Task Force. He served as an instructor with the U.S. Navy Sexual Assault Intervention Training Program, the Southern Regional Public Safety Institute and the Harrison County Law Enforcement Academy. He served as President of the Leadership Gulf Coast Board of Trustees and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Coast Chamber of Commerce. He was also a member of the Gulf Coast Business Council.
He was admitted to the Mississippi Bar in 1999 and is licensed to practice in all state and federal courts in Mississippi. Joel is a native of Gulfport and a graduate of Gulfport High School. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Mississippi in 1996 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1999. He and his wife, Courtney, have three children.
Proven verdicts and settlements at Owen, Owen & Smith, PLLC
These results are credited to Owen, Owen & Smith, PLLC. A result appears under an attorney's own name only when a published source names them as counsel on the case.
On June 25, 2014 John Williams Jr., a certified crane operator at the VT Halter Marine shipyard in Pascagoula, was in the cab of a Manitowoc Model 16000 crawler crane during a three-crane lift of a ship's bow when the cranes began pulling apart and his tipped. The 18,000-pound steel counterweights stacked on its rear slid forward and struck the cab, throwing him eight feet head-first onto concrete. He survived, permanently incapacitated. A Gulfport jury found Manitowoc never warned operators that could happen and awarded $8,500,000; after fault was split 50/40/10 the judgment against Manitowoc was $3,400,000, and the Fifth Circuit affirmed in 2018.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
