Born in Birmingham in 1949, Rufus R. Smith, Jr. earned his law degree from the Cumberland School of Law of Samford University in 1974. He served as Special Assistant Attorney General for the State of Alabama from 1977 to 1982. Among his many professional honors, Rufus Smith has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for each of the last 15 years, and has maintained an AV® PreeminentTM Peer Review RatingSM by Martindale-Hubbell® for 20 years. This ranking is reserved for lawyers whose peers consider them to have the highest level of professional skill and integrity.