Campbell Law 45th Anniversary Alumni Spotlight: Ayeshinaye Smith ’19
Nominee: Ayeshinaye Smith, Class of 2019
Ayeshinaye Smith ’19 is the Managing Partner at Smith Dominguez, PLLC in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she practices in the areas of Estate Planning, Business Law, Family Law and Real Estate.
Smith is a member of the Wake County Bar Association and North Carolina Bar Association. She also serves as Event Co-Chair for the Capital City Lawyers Association and as a volunteer for Legal Aid of North Carolina’s Lawyer on the Line event.
Smith earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned a Master of Trust and Wealth Management from Campbell University and a Juris Doctor from Campbell University, Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law. Smith also earned a LL.M in Legal Practice from Nottingham Trent University.
Q: You are a founding member of the law firm of Smith Dominguez, PLLC. What advice do you have for students interested in opening their own law firm?
A: Once you realize that you’re interested, start planning. Envision your dream clients, your dream cases, the way your firm would look and how it will feel. When you have those ideas in mind, it makes it much easier to build your firm to meet these goals. Also, take the class “Start Your Own Law Firm” with Vice Dean Zeke Bridges. That class really let me see how it all could work. I took the class very seriously and used it to launch Smith Dominguez, PLLC’s business plan. Once I passed the bar, we hit the ground running.
Q: What is your favorite thing about your job?
A: My favorite thing is the flexibility to work on the cases that are meaningful to me.
Q: How did Campbell Law School prepare you for your career?
A: Campbell pushed me to go outside of my comfort zone. I wanted to focus on transactional and negotiation focused courses. I did not look forward to taking classes like Trial Advocacy. Today, I am grateful that Trial Ad was required. I had and won my first trial less than two months after opening the firm and a great part of that was due to the skills I learned in that class. Now, I am in court almost every week.
Q: Share a memory or experience that has had a lasting impact on your career.
A: My time working in the Blanchard Community Law Clinic greatly prepared me to run my own firm. It had a small law firm feel and I actively worked on cases that are not much different from the cases I handle now. I was able to work on a divorce, a child custody case and multiple domestic violence cases. The clinic gave me the opportunity to advocate for clients in the courtroom before I was an attorney. It really helped prepare me for my first post-license trial.
Q: What does Campbell University’s motto “leading with purpose” mean to you?
A: Leading with purpose means intentionally acting to make the greatest impact on the most people.
Want to nominate a Campbell Law Alumna/Alumnus to be featured in a 45th anniversary spotlight?
If you would like to nominate a fellow alumnus/na who is living the university’s motto “leading with purpose,” please contact Lisa Snedeker at lsnedeker@campbell.edu for more information.
