Mary Anne Smith began her career at the Illinois Institute of Technology as the university’s first in-house attorney and enjoyed a stellar career until retiring as IIT’s vice president and general counsel in 2012. Mary Anne’s retirement was very brief as she was requested in 2015 to serve as the IIT Kent Law Schools first Patent Hub director. The Patent Hub is a pro bono program that helps qualified, low-income inventors and small businesses in Illinois obtain volunteer legal assistance from local patent agents or attorneys licensed to practice before the US Patent & Trademark Office. Mary Anne Smith also has extensive pro bono experience having established a Chicago Volunteer Legal Services clinic at Visitation Church on Chicago's South Side in 1988, which she continues to chair, and has personally handled many cases for low income clients. Mary Anne earned a master's degree from IIT and a law degree from IIT’s Chicago Kent School of Law.