07/17/2023
SSP is excited to announce the election of Joshua M. Smith as the newest Shareholder in our firm.
Josh joined SSP's labor and employment practice group in 2014, after graduating from the University of Cincinnati College of Law Cum Laude and earning the school’s Labor and Employment Law Award for his work and interest in the field.
Josh represents a wide variety of clients in all aspects of employment, including defending employers from claims under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), discrimination laws (ADA, Title VII, ADEA and related state laws), wrongful terminations, and breach of contract and enforcing restrictive covenants (nonsolicits, noncompetes, and nondisclosure of trade secrets) against former employees. Beyond litigation, Josh assists clients in mitigating the risk of such claims by advising on policies and/or personnel decisions, reviewing, revising, and providing model handbook policies, assisting clients through workplace disputes, and providing training sessions for clients and their management teams on any number of common problem areas.
While Josh’s primary practice involves assisting employers, he also champions the rights of individual clients from time to time, including successfully obtaining judgments and/or settlements on wage and hour claims, sexual harassment, and wrongful termination. While many firms and attorneys have a practice of only representing employers or employees (not both), Josh has experience on both sides, providing him the unique insight of understanding an issue from both the employer and employee perspectives.
While in undergrad, law school, and in his first two years of practice, Josh also served in the U.S. Army Reserves, including a tour in Afghanistan from 2009-2010 as a military police officer in the 300th Military Police Brigade. And, for two of his years at UC law, Josh also served as a graduate student trustee on the University’s Board of Trustees.
