William F. (Bill) Smith, II was born in Winfield, Alabama in 1962. Raised in the Birmingham area, he was valedictorian at Shades Valley High School in 1980, where he played basketball and baseball. He received a B.S. in Mineral Engineering, Petroleum specialization, from the University of Alabama in 1984. During college, Bill worked as an engineering intern for Alabama Power Company at the E. C. Gaston Steam Plant. In 1987, he earned a J.D. from the University of Alabama School of Law. Bill has been married to Suzann Sherer Smith since 1984. They have two adult children, Kathleen, an ICU nurse, and Parker, an insurance agent.

Bill is admitted to practice in Alabama (1987), U.S. District Court, Northern (1988), Middle (1997) and Southern (2004) Districts of Alabama, and the U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit (1999). Bill is a member of the Birmingham Bar Association and the National Retail & Restaurant Defense Association.

Bill has practiced exclusively in insurance defense litigation for more than 30 years, having successfully tried, as first chair, a diverse range of cases in state and federal courts, including automobile & commercial trucking, insurance & bad faith claims, wrongful death, premises liability, product liability, employment cases (race and pregnancy discrimination, sexual harassment, and workers compensation), and disputes between business entities.

From 2014 – 2020, Bill tried more than 30 cases to verdict.

He has previously served in-house as senior litigation counsel for a major property & casualty insurer.

Bill is a frequent speaker at seminars on a variety of civil litigation topics. He is active in his church and outside interests include gardening, hiking, backpacking basketball and all youth sports.

Lauren Stone was born in New York and grew up in Coral Springs, Florida. In 2006, she graduated from the University of Central Florida in Orlando with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a minor in Psychology. She later attended Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and earned her Juris Doctorate in 2010. During law school, Lauren was an Articles Editor for the Nova Law Review and was recognized by the Pro Bono Honor Society for exemplary service within the legal community. Lauren also interned at Nova Southeastern University’s Children & Families Clinic as a Certified Legal Intern.

Since being admitted to the Florida Bar in 2010, Lauren has dedicated her practice to representing insurance companies, corporations, and governmental entities in civil litigation matters. Since joining Vernis & Bowling in 2011, Lauren has focused on defending clients in the area of insurance defense litigation, including automobile liability, negligent security, premises liability, products liability, wrongful death and governmental tort liability. Lauren practices before all Florida State Courts as well as the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.