Ariel K. Smith is a U.S. Virgin Islands lawyer who served as the 19th

attorney general of the United States Virgin Islands The attorney general of the United States Virgin Islands supervises and directs the Department of Justice. The current attorney general is Gordon C. Rhea. In 1962, the Virgin Islands Department of Law was established as an executive department in th ...

from 2023 to 2024.

Early life and education

Smith was born on

Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands Saint Thomas (, , ) is one of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea, and a constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States. Along with surrounding minor islands, it is one of t ...

. She graduated from

Charlotte Amalie High School Charlotte Amalie High School (CAHS) is a public high school housing a population of just over 1400 students, and over 130 members of faculty and staff. It is located in what is colloquially called the "town area" of the island of St. Thomas, ...

. She completed a J.D. from

Rutgers Law School Rutgers Law School is the law school of Rutgers University, with classrooms in Newark and Camden, New Jersey. It is the largest public law school and the 10th largest law school, overall, in the United States. Each class in the three-year J.D. pr ...

Career

For over ten years, Smith worked in private practice as an associate attorney with Smock and Moorhead on Saint Thomas. From 2006 to 2011, Smith was an assistant territorial public defender. In this role, she worked in the criminal defense of misdemeanors and felony offenses such as domestic violence and white collar crimes. In 2011, Smith joined the civil division of the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Justice as an assistant attorney general, serving role for seven years. In 2016, she was promoted to chief of the civil division where she oversaw five attorneys and two support staff.

Attorney General of the Virgin Islands

On March 20, 2023, governor Albert Bryan nominated Smith to succeed Carol Thomas-Jacobs as the

. In May 2023,

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...

was subpoenaed by the US Virgin Islands in part of a larger lawsuit against

JP Morgan JPMorgan Chase & Co. (stylized as JPMorganChase) is an American multinational finance corporation headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. It is the largest bank in the United States, and the world's largest bank by mar ...

's alleged ties to

Jeffrey Epstein Jeffrey Edward Epstein ( , ; January 20, 1953August 10, 2019) was an American financier and child sex offender. Born and raised in New York City, Epstein began his professional career as a teacher at the Dalton School, despite lacking a col ...

's sex trafficking operations. The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court in Manhattan by former US Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George, in 2022. On June 30, 2023, Smith was sworn in as attorney general on a permanent basis during a ceremony at the Governor's Mansion. Smith resigned on March 15, 2024.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Ariel M 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American women lawyers 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American lawyers American women lawyers Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Rutgers Law School alumni United States Virgin Islands lawyers United States Virgin Islands women in politics Year of birth missing (living people) People from Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands Attorneys general of the United States Virgin Islands

Early life and education

Career

Attorney General of the Virgin Islands

See also

References