Raquel Melody Smith

Raquel Smith is an associate with the Law Office of McKenzie & Tehrani. Ms. Smith has been barred in Maryland since 2013 and focuses her practice on serious criminal and traffic matters. Ms. Smith decided to pursue a career in law after interning with a non-profit legal services provider in Prince George’s County, MD. While interning, she witnessed the difficulties unrepresented litigants experienced attempting to navigate Maryland’s legal system. Thereafter, she knew she would focus her career on assisting those dealing with the legal system to obtain the best possible results.

Ms. Smith has extensive experience in handling hundreds of criminal and traffic cases. She has also represented litigants in personal injury matters and domestic violence hearings. Over the course of her career, she has handled dozens of jury trials. Ms. Smith has obtained complete jury acquittals on a number of varying criminal charges, from misdemeanor charges ranging to charges involving life in jail. She has also obtained jury verdicts higher than settlement offers relayed by insurance companies, and in one case, obtained a jury verdict twelve times higher than the settlement offer. She has earned the reputation of being an aggressive but amicable litigator among her peers. The majority of her clients are Spanish-speaking, and she prides herself on effectively communicating the nuances of the legal process to her clients and making that process less stressful.

Ms. Smith is a member of the Maryland Criminal Defense Attorneys’ Association, the Montgomery County Bar Association and the Maryland Hispanic Bar Association. Ms. Smith earned her Juris Doctorate from the American University, Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C. and her Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Maryland, College Park. She is a lifelong resident of Montgomery County, graduating from Georgetown Visitation College Preparatory School in Washington, D.C. She speaks fluent Spanish and is of Chilean and Jamaican descent.