Wendell A. Smith, Partner in the Real Estate Department and member of the Community Association, Land Use, Planned Real Estate and Redevelopment Practice Groups at Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis LLP, has been chosen to receive the first ever Lifetime Achievement Award from the New Jersey Chapter of the Community Associations Institute (CAI-NJ). The award recognizes Mr. Smith’s years of leadership at the state and national levels of the Community Associations Institute. The Awards Dinner will be held on March 3, 2011 at the Renaissance Woodbridge Hotel starting at 6 p.m.

Mr. Smith is the founding president of CAI-NJ, for which he serves as its General Counsel. He is a former national trustee of the Community Associations Institute (CAI), past president of the CAI Research Foundation, and he is a charter member of CAI’s College of Community Association Lawyers. He was the recipient of the prestigious Byron Hanke Award from the national CAI organization for outstanding contributions to community associations.

Mr. Smith was previously an attorney member of the NJ Assembly Task Force To Study Homeowners Associations and he is the former Chair of the ABA Section Committee on Common Interest Community Associations. Mr. Smith is the co-author of, New Jersey Condominium and Community Association Law (Smith, Estis & Li, GANN, 2010) and is the author of numerous articles and presentations in his field. Mr. Smith has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America since 1983 and he was selected as Best Lawyers Real Estate Lawyer of the Year, 2011. He is a charter member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL) and has served as vice chair of its Common Interest Ownership Committee

In civic affairs, Mr. Smith has had a longstanding commitment to the theatre arts and public education. He was a co-founder and director of both the Holmdel Drama and Art Association and the Holmdel Theatre Company, Inc. That organization converted a 110 year old barn to a 99 seat theatre named after his son, Duncan, who was very active in theatre at Holmdel High School and at Johns Hopkins before his death in 1987.

Mr. Smith is a past president and was a member of the Holmdel Board of Education for nine years and was the founding president of the Holmdel Foundation for Educational Excellence. He is a past chairman and was a member of Bayshore Community Hospital Board of Trustees for 38 years.

Mr. Smith is a Trustee Emeritus of Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Medicine and a recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus and Heritage Awards from Johns Hopkins University.

Mr. Smith received his undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins and his law degree from the University of Michigan. He is a resident of Holmdel.

In 2011 Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis LLP celebrates its 97th year of building business in New Jersey. The firm has over 100 attorneys in four main practice departments, Litigation, Real Estate, Corporate, and Tax, Trusts and Estates, and 19 practice areas offering comprehensive legal services. The firm has offices located in Woodbridge and Roseland, New Jersey. For more information, call Erin P. Faltin at 732-549-5600 or visit the firm's web site at www.greenbaumlaw.com.

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