Lars Smith named interim dean of Louisville Law

Lars S. Smith

As of June 2021, Lars S. Smith, Samuel J. Stallings Professor of Law, is interim dean of the University of Louisville School of Law.

Smith has been a member of the Louisville Law faculty since 2000 and served as interim dean from July 2017-January 2018. Most recently, he has served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.

Smith teaches in the areas of intellectual property, business and commercial law. He is particularly interested in helping students build practice skills.

The latest example of this dedication to experiential learning is the expansion of the school’s Entrepreneurship Law Clinic.

Established in 2012, the clinic has historically focused on assisting students enrolled in the Entrepreneurship MBA program at UofL's College of Business as they develop business ideas, form teams and compete in business plan competitions for seed funding. 

With the July 1 implementation of an interim NCAA policy that allows student-athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness, the clinic will add Name, Image, and Likeness to its areas of expertise to assist UofL students, including student-athletes, as they encounter legal issues when setting up a brand and marketing that brand over social media.

In 2012, Smith received the University of Louisville Distinguished Faculty Award in Teaching. In 2011, he received a Fulbright Scholarship Award to teach at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law in Wuhan, China, where he taught Chinese Masters of Law students about U.S. intellectual property law. He returned to China to teach U.S. trademark law in December 2019.