Bridget Smith is the General Counsel & Secretary for The New York Public Library Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. Prior to her role s General Counsel, she was Senior Counsel at the Ford Foundation, where she oversaw operations and the contracts team at Ford, as well as serving as the attorney for Ford’s Southeast Asia regional office in Jakarta and the Central America regional office in Mexico City. She also held positions at Davis, Polk & Wardwell and Skadden, Arps, Meagher, Slate & Flom, LLP, as well as serving as law clerk for the Honorable Robert L. Carter of the U. S. District Court in the Southern District of New York. She is admitted to practice in New York State and the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York federal courts.

Smith received her BA at Wellesley College, a Master in Public Policy and Urban Planning at Harvard University, and her JD at the University of California at Berkeley, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the Berkeley Journal of Employment & Labor Law. She was awarded the Harry S. Truman Scholarship (New York) while at Wellesley and was also featured in the Harvard Business Review Press book Geeks and Geezers: How Era, Values, and Defining Moments Shape Leaders.