Keith S. Smith was appointed as a Mecklenburg County District Court Judge in July 2023 by the Hon. Governor Roy Cooper.   Smith was elected to a full-term without opposition in November 2024.  Smith serves as the lead domestic violence judge, as one of the primary criminal judges, and as a treatment court judge. Smith previously served as a senior and associate county attorney for Mecklenburg County where he represented the county in cases in child welfare cases at the trial and appellate level for more than eighteen years.  Smith previously served as an assistant district attorney in Rowan County for more than three years, and as the Court Improvement Coordinator for Rowan County for one year.

Smith serves as an adjunct professor at Catawba College and UNC at Charlotte.  Smith has taught at Catawba College since 2001 and coordinated the college’s criminal justice program from 2001 to 2008.   He has taught at Johnson C. Smith, Shaw University, Strayer University and Mitchell Community College.  He was a former child protective services afterhours/conflicts/ emergency investigator in Mecklenburg County for ten years.  He served as a state probation/parole officer for three years and worked in institutional corrections for three years. Smith has a JD from North Carolina Central, MS degree from UNC-Charlotte, and bachelor’s degree from UNC-Chapel Hill.  

Smith is a board member of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Activities League Board of Directors, the McCrorey YMCA Advisory Board, and the Board of Trustees at the historic Barber-Scotia College.  He is the former chair of the Charlotte- Mecklenburg Workforce Development Youth Council   and the Youth Educational Society of Charlotte.  Smith assisted with the incorporation of the Dudley E. Flood Education Foundation and the Sigmas of Charlotte Foundation.   He previously served on the Mecklenburg County Human Services board and the Domestic Violence Board of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. He is a member of 100 Black Men of Charlotte, Unique Lodge PHA, Mt. Carmel Baptist, and a life member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.  Smith was initiated as Distinguished Service Chapter member #212 of the international fraternity in 2025.   Smith chartered Sigma chapters at UNC at Charlotte in 1998, Appalachian State University in 1992, and Duke University in 1993.

Smith was recognized as the Mayor’s Mentoring Alliance Mentor of the Year for Charlotte in 2013.   Smith is married to Shannon Chavis-Smith, and their daughter Celeste is a television news reporter in Greensboro, NC.