On October 28, 2025, Derek Smith was interviewed for a new Law.com series highlighting hobbies of litigators. The following is an excerpt:
Derek Smith leads an enviable double life, splitting his time between high-stakes litigation and his hobby of high-energy concert photography. The trial partner at Venable LLP in Chicago defends pharmaceutical and chemical companies in environmental contamination and mass tort claims. But he has also built a thriving second career capturing iconic musicians.
Derek Smith may have a picture-perfect life.
By day, Smith is a trial partner at Venable LLP in Chicago defending pharmaceutical and chemical companies against environmental contamination and mass tort claims.
By night, Smith is a concert photographer shooting rock legends like Roger Daltrey, Luke Bryan and Zac Brown.
“I do think in a way, concert photography is kind of a dying art form because everyone has a phone now,” Smith said. “It’s oversaturated, but phones still can’t do what a professional photographer can do.”
Smith’s two high-pressure worlds rarely intersect but share surprising commonalities in split-second decision-making, trust-building, quick thinking, and storytelling. Both professions require building trust through character rather than credentials, Smith said. He emphasizes being authentic and putting others first, whether clients or bands. It’s all about trust, Smith said.
“Trust really goes to your character, and your character is overarching,” Smith said. “You shouldn’t have a different character in the practice of law versus in concert photography or anything else you do. It’s not about me; it’s about the band or the venue. It’s the same thing with clients, it’s not about me, it’s about what’s better for them.”
After breaking into concert photography in 2018 following a year of rejections, Smith has photographed hundreds of shows while maintaining his full-time legal practice, made possible by Chicago’s robust music scene, which schedules major acts on weekends, and by his own grueling schedule that starts at 5 a.m. daily. His website is High Voltage Concert Photography.
“I definitely think it’s an art form, it’s something I’ve studied,” Smith said.
Smith doesn’t get paid for his photography work, and he sees it as purely a creative outlet and a way to give back to the bands whose music has soundtracked his life since childhood, when he fell asleep listening to The Who’s “It’s Hard” on cassette tape. He never imagined he’d one day stand in the photo pit capturing the same band he idolized decades earlier.
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