Damon Smith

Damon Smith currently serves as the General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He joined the Biden-Harris Administration as Principal Deputy General Counsel after serving as Senior Director of Advocacy and Counsel at the Credit Union National Association (CUNA). Prior to joining CUNA, he was a Partner at Jenner and Block LLP in Washington, D.C. where he provided counsel to companies facing complex compliance, government regulation and enforcement matters.

Mr. Smith previously served as the Senior Counsel and Acting General Counsel at the U.S. Department for Housing and Urban Development during the Obama-Biden Administration, where he provided legal and policy guidance on a range of programs and activities and set the Department’s litigation strategy and regulatory agenda. Before his government service, he taught property and local government law as an Associate Professor at Rutgers-Camden Law School and a Visiting Professor at the American University Washington College of Law. He began his legal career as a real estate Associate at Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C., and worked prior to law school as an urban planner in East St. Louis, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri.

Mr. Smith is a graduate of Harvard Law School and holds a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.