Meet the Team: Marc Smith, Supervisory Associate Counsel, Office of General Counsel

13 November 2025

From Edvin Hernandez

Sustaining and modernizing the U.S. Navy’s strategic weapon system (SWS) is no easy feat, requiring experts in fields across the technical and professional spectrum, such as members of the Strategic Systems Programs (SSP) Office of Counsel that ensures the command.

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Meet Marc Smith, an associate counsel at SSP headquarters in Washington D.C.

Smith developed a strong interest in the legal system after taking a law course in high school.

“I knew I wanted to get into the legal field,” he said. “It seemed really interesting to me and I was inspired by the idea of using the legal field to help others. So, I took classes on justice throughout history and seeing the impact the legal system can have really spoke to me, so I decided to pursue that as a career.”

He attended the University of Massachusetts in Amherst where he majored in legal studies and minored in English and psychology. After graduating with his bachelor’s degree in 2008, Smith applied to law school and was accepted to the College of Law at Loyola University in New Orleans.

“When I was in law school, I became interested in public service,” Smith said. “That seemed like the avenue for me to be able to use my legal career to help others. So, while I was in school, I looked for internships and landed one supporting the Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG) in Groton, Connecticut.”

The Navy’s JAG is a specialized team of legal experts that deliver full-spectrum legal services across the enterprise to enable naval and joint operations in support of national defense. When Smith graduated with his Juris Doctor degree in 2012, he didn’t immediately join the Department of the Navy (DoN), but he did know he wanted to be a part of it someday.

“Based on my internship with JAG, Navy just seemed like an organization I really wanted to be a part of,” he said. “Although I didn’t begin my career with the Department of the Navy right away, I could see myself in a similar legal position in the future.”

Smith’s first job as a lawyer was working for the attorney general’s office in Wyoming. He then was a prosecutor in Grand Junction, Colorado, in 2016, before moving to California in 2018 and serving as an attorney advisor for the Social Security Administration. In that role, he advised administrative law judges on applicable regulations and federal precedent on disability law.

In 2020, Smith returned to the idea of working as an attorney for the Navy and explored opportunities through the Navy Office of General Counsel’s website.

“I had been looking at possible legal positions within the Navy,” he said. “Then I saw an opening within SSP. At the time, I was unfamiliar with SSP. Once I looked at the mission and what the command does, the opportunity started to excite me. As I continued to do more and more research, this position really spoke to me and I found just how important the organization is, so I applied.”

Smith joined SSP’s Office of General Counsel, which oversees SSP’s responsibilities for the submarine-launched ballistic missile systems, non-nuclear hypersonic Conventional Prompt Strike, and the nuclear armed sea-launched cruise missiles program. Smith has been with SSP for more than five years as an associate and assistant counsel. He plays a critical role in ensuring the command is compliant with legal standards, helping SSP’s senior leaders navigate through the legal landscape and allowing them to focus on warfighting readiness.

“Our group helps ensure the ships keep running,” Smith said. “It becomes challenging when things are constantly changing and shifting in the legal world because what was true one day, might not be true the next. So, our responsibility is to help the command remain adaptable and up-to-date on the latest guidance and minimize risk.”

The Department of War has embarked on several major updates and changes to policy over the last several months. For SSP, and for Smith, this means learning about new DoN instructions or directives and how they may effect the command’s operations.

Smith said he takes pride in supporting the Navy and referenced his previous experiences litigating cases before district courts and courts of appeals for having a significant impact on his ability to assist SSP. In his current role, he sees SSP’s office of counsel as problem-solvers, assisting leadership in interpreting new policy and guidance and recommending an appropriate course of action to support the command’s priorities.

One of Smith’s favorite things about working at SSP is being part of a dedicated workforce committed to the nation’s strategic deterrence mission.

“There are really strong people here – really smart, really technically savvy people,” he said. “It's been fantastic to get to know all the people at this command, and knowing what SSP does and how important our piece of the Navy puzzle is makes it easy to feel connected to the mission.”

SSP is responsible for sustaining strategic weapon system (SWS) on the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) and supporting the integration of the D5LE weapon system on the new Columbia-class SSBNs. Looking to the future, SSP is actively modernizing the sea-based leg of the nuclear triad through development of the D5LE2 SWS and pioneering regional strike capabilities of the future through development of the nuclear-armed sea launched cruise missile and the non-nuclear hypersonic conventional prompt strike system.

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Meet the Team: Marc Smith, Supervisory Associate Counsel, Office of General Counsel

From Edvin Hernandez