Stanley W. Smith

Stanley W. Smith is skilled both at advocating for his clients in the courtroom and helping parties to a dispute find common ground through the mediation process. He is a founding partner at Niven & Smith, LLP, where he has worked since 1977. He has also maintained a mediation practice for over twenty years. Mr. Smith has served in multiple court-appointed roles involving dispute resolution. He also helps his colleagues develop their skills as legal advocates by presenting on numerous continuing education panels.

Mr. Smith obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He earned a law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of Law in San Francisco in 1976. He was admitted to the State Bar of California the same year.

In his career, Mr. Smith has focused on real estate litigation in both state and federal court and at both the trial and appellate levels. He has handled a broad variety of real estate disputes, including construction defects, commercial leases, easement and boundary disputes, real estate professional malpractice, partnership disputes, and partition actions. He has also advocated for clients in numerous business and commercial disputes.

Mr. Smith added mediation to his practice in 1999. He helps parties involved in real estate and commercial disputes reach settlement agreements. His training and experience as a mediator enable him to help people find resolutions to even the most seemingly-intractable conflicts. He can guide the parties to a dispute through the process of identifying an outcome that everyone finds acceptable. Mr. Smith has served as a court-appointed Special Master, Referee, and Judge Pro Tem in San Mateo, San Francisco, and Santa Clara Counties.

His peers in the legal community have taken note of Mr. Smith’s commitment to both trial advocacy and dispute resolution. He has been named a “Super Lawyer of Northern California” every year since 2019.