Mailee Smith is the Illinois Policy Institute’s senior director of labor policy and staff attorney. In this role, she focuses on government union labor relations and the effect on Illinois taxpayers.

Mailee’s expertise has been featured in dozens of television, radio and podcast appearances, including Fox News, the Cato Institute and multiple Chicago and national stations. Her opinion pieces and legal analyses have appeared in publications such as National Review, the Chicago Tribune and Crain’s Chicago Business.

Mailee received her law degree from Valparaiso University in 2003, where she graduated magna cum laude, participated in the honors program and served as associate editor of the school’s law review. After law school, Mailee clerked for Judge Kenneth L. Ryskamp in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Prior to joining the Illinois Policy Institute, Mailee worked at a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, where she drafted legislation and served as the organization’s primary litigation attorney.

Mailee is admitted to practice in the state of Illinois, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Tenth and Eleventh Circuits. She is also a fellow with the Institute for the American Worker and teaches a university course on public policy.