S. Christian Smith has been named director of career services for Elon University School of Law.
Smith joins Elon Law after serving in a range of career services leadership capacities in the private sector, in addition to three years as Director of Employer Relations for Elon University, where he traveled nationally to develop recruiting relationships with private industry, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. Smith holds a doctoral degree in Counseling and Counselor Education and a master of science degree in counseling from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, as well as a bachelor of arts degree in communication studies from the University of Minnesota.
“We are delighted that Chris Smith will be leading our career services division,” said George R. Johnson Jr., Dean of Elon University School of Law. “His expertise in career services, higher education, and business will be a great benefit to our students, graduates, and partners in the profession as we produce lawyers who also are prepared for significant leadership roles in their professional settings and communities.”
Smith has also served as Corporate Recruiter for Management Recruiters International where he was responsible for national and international employment searches. In addition, Smith has extensive experience in non-profit management and educational consulting.
“I am excited to be back at Elon University and particularly enthusiastic about the opportunity to work with the remarkable students, faculty, and staff at the School of Law,” Smith said. “As part of the Elon Law mission to provide a distinctive legal education of excellence, I have every confidence that we will build a career services program that is second to none. The law school has made significant progress already in developing a strong and active career services program, and our collective intention is to strengthen and expand the services we offer for the benefit of our students, graduates and the legal community.”
In his prior position at Elon University, Smith worked extensively with the offices of Alumni Affairs and Parent Programs to facilitate parent and alumni involvement in career services programs while collaborating with student groups to bring employers to campus.
As Director of Career Services at Elon Law, Smith will design and lead employer development programs, creating and strengthening relationships with traditional and non-traditional legal employers to assure that students have desirable career opportunities.