Biography

G. Murrell Smith, Jr. is a co-founding member of SMITH | ROBINSON. He focuses his practice in a variety of areas including civil litigation, medical malpractice defense, insurance defense, and governmental law.

A native of Florence, South Carolina, Murrell grew up in Sumter, where he graduated from Wilson Hall in 1986. He attended Wofford College in 1990, earning a Bachelor of Arts in History and Government. After earning his Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1993, Murrell began practicing law in his hometown of Sumter. He started with a general law practice yet simultaneously served as a part-time public defender from 1994-1998. As a public defender, Murrell tried numerous DUI and drug cases and major felonies to include murder trials and death penalty cases.

Murrell later joined the practice of Lee, Erter, Wilson, Holler & Smith, LLC. Smith’s focus evolved to insurance defense, automobile claims, and medical malpractice defense. He has tried numerous cases to verdict and has honed his trial skills to concentrate on more complex litigation to include nursing homes, commercial litigation, business litigation, workers compensation, medical malpractice and legal malpractice. Murrell now has a presence representing clients in virtually every county in the state, and he proudly holds an AV Preeminent Rating by Martindale-Hubbell.

When he is not practicing law, Murrell serves as a part-time legislator representing District 67 in the South Carolina House of Representatives. Murrell was first elected to public office in 2000 and has since served District 67 proudly. He began his political career as a member of the House Judiciary Committee rising to first vice chairman. In 2009, he moved to the House Ways and Means Committee and was Chairman of the Health and Human Services Subcommittee beginning in 2012. On December 5, 2018, Murrell was elected as the Chairman of the South Carolina House Ways and Means Committee. Murrell also served as the Chairman of the House Ethics Committee and on the South Carolina Judicial Merit Selection Commission. On April 28, 2022, Murrell was unanimously elected to be Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives. He began his term as Speaker on May 12, 2022.

In addition to his many other accolades, Murrell was elected to membership in the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) in 2020 and was also selected for the 2020 Compleat Lawyer Award by the University of South Carolina School of Law. Murrell was also chosen for the “Leadership in Law” award by South Carolina Lawyers Weekly in 2019 and the 2025 Super Lawyer by The Best Lawyers in America, and was voted “Best Elected Official” four years in a row (2020-2024) in Best of Sumter by The Sumter Item. In 2023, he was elected to the Wofford College Board of Trustees, where he currently serves his Alma Mater. Murrell has been married to his wife, Macaulay, for 20 years and they have two children together: Mary Brown “Bee” and George Murrell III. Murrell enjoys spending time in the Sumter community, where he is a longtime member of the Sumter Rotary Club and the First Presbyterian Church. When he is not spending his free time outdoors, he loves cheering on the Gamecocks, of which he is a lifelong fan.