Courses Offered:

Property
Contracts
Real Estate Transactions
Secured Transactions
Real Estate Development
Housing Law

Professional Biographical Information:

James C. Smith joined the faculty of the University of Georgia School of Law in 1984 and was named the John Byrd Martin Chair of Law in 1997. He specializes in property, real estate transactions and commercial law.

Smith's scholarship includes several books: Property: Cases and Materials (with professors Larson, Nagle and Kidwell), Real Estate Transactions: Problems, Cases and Materials (with Professor Malloy, 2d ed. 2002), Federal Taxation of Real Estate (with Professor Samansky, 2005) and Neighboring Property Owners (1988, with supplements 1990-2005). In addition, Smith has assumed authorship of the best-selling treatise on real estate law, Friedman on Contracts and Conveyances of Real Property ,the seventh edition of which was published in 2005. He has also published numerous articles and book chapters and has served as a fellow of CALI (Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction) to develop electronic teaching materials for property.

Smith is frequently invited to give guest lectures and to make presentations at academic conferences, and he serves in leadership positions in a number of professional organizations, including the American Bar Association and the Association of American Law Schools. Smith also takes an active role in advising policymakers. He has testified before Congress on four occasions: twice regarding a proposed bill to exempt certain federal workers from state income tax, and twice regarding state taxation of nonresidents' pension income.

Smith earned a bachelor's degree from St. Olaf College and a law degree from the University of Texas. He then served as a law clerk for Judge Walter Ely of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Los Angeles, and practiced for four years as an associate with Baker Botts in Houston, TX. Prior to joining the UGA law faculty, Smith was an assistant professor at the Ohio State University College of Law. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Alabama, the University of Texas, Washington University School of Law, the University of Iowa, the University of Reading (England), the University of Regensburg (Germany), and the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) in Mexico City.

An avid runner, Smith has participated in the Boston Marathon on five occasions between 1981 and 2002.