The papers consist largely of correspondence and legal documents arranged alphabetically by case. The majority of the cases arose from the involvement of Smith and his partners Bruce Waltzer and Jack Peebles in the legal defense of Mississippi civil rights activists in 1964 and 1965, but a few of the files touch on the firm's representation of the United Packinghouse, Food, and Allied Workers Union. Although a number of these cases were quite significant (Cameron v. Johnson and Peacock v. Greenwood reached the Supreme Court), the correspondence tends to be largely professional in nature. The chief exception to this may be found in the more personal references in the COFO correspondence files.
