Josh Smith – Newpark Drilling Fluids

There is a scene Josh Smith still pictures clearly: a living room, his grandparents beside him on the couch, and Ben Matlock on the television. The fictional Georgia attorney had a gift for cutting through noise and finding the truth in unexpected places, and something about that simplicity stuck with the boy watching. It was not a dramatic moment — no sudden declaration that he would someday be a lawyer — but it planted something. Decades later, as general counsel of Newpark Drilling Fluids, Smith can trace a clear line from that couch through engineering school, law firms, and an 11-year stint at one of the world’s largest companies most people have never heard of.

Josh Smith | Newpark Drilling Fluids | General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer

“You don’t usually reflect on your career because you are day-to-day,” Smith says. “But I am happy with where I am, even if it’s not exactly where I would have predicted to be.”

The long road to in-house

Smith came to law through engineering. He earned a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Dayton before completing an internship at Rohm and Haas. He enjoyed the work but recognized that a plant-based career was not the right long-term fit. Law school at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology, gave him a way to merge both interests, and he entered with a focus on intellectual property as a bridge between the technical and the legal.

After about three years in private practice at two firms, Smith found himself restless. Firm life offered exposure to discrete transactions and client work, but it rarely allowed him to see the full picture — the strategy behind the decisions, the business goals shaping the legal questions. There was something missing in being handed a problem without context, solving it, and moving on. He wanted to understand the company behind the file.

“Part of the reason I went in-house was to be involved and to see how legal impacts the business,” Smith says. “That’s hard to do when you’re at a firm.”

That desire brought him to Schlumberger, a global oilfield services giant with nearly 100,000 employees and a legal department that functioned, in many ways, like a law firm embedded inside a corporation. He spent nearly 11 years there, starting in technology roles supporting engineering teams through product development and commercialization, then taking on progressively broader responsibilities. Among the most formative experiences was helping transform the underperforming legal team of an acquired drilling fluids business into a high-functioning one — the kind of challenge that clarified his preference for practical, business-focused legal work. But the organization’s scale had its own limits.

“At a company with that size, it could sometimes be difficult to see the direct impact of your work,” Smith says. “In a company of our size today, legal is integrated with the operations, and my decisions are much more impactful to the business.”

Building something new

Smith joined Newpark in July 2019, drawn by the chance to expand his scope within a leaner, more nimble organization. Newpark is a Houston-based oilfield services company providing drilling fluids and technical services to the oil and gas industry. With roughly 1,100 employees, and operations spanning approximately 35 countries, about 60 percent of the company’s business comes from outside the United States. Following a private equity-backed spin-off of its drilling fluids division, Newpark is now focused on disciplined growth, deeper customer relationships, and careful international expansion.

Smith arrived during a period of rapid change and helped prepare the division for its eventual sale. After the transaction closed, he led the effort to build an entirely independent legal and compliance function for the newly private organization — policies, governance frameworks, and compliance infrastructure created largely from scratch while the business was still finding its footing. Not long after the separation, a ransomware incident added urgency to an already demanding stretch, requiring fast coordination and operational resilience in equal measure. Through it all, the goal remained the same: create order, build momentum, and keep the business moving.

“I took a leap of faith when I came here,” Smith says. “Providing practical advice is the name of the game, and that’s what I’ve tried to do.”

The work of a working GC

Smith’s legal team is small by the standards of a company operating on five continents. His direct reports include attorneys in Italy and the United Kingdom, a couple of paralegals in the U.S. and India, and additional indirect support across risk and regulatory functions in the United States. Across that footprint, no two weeks look alike. His responsibilities span contracts, litigation, intellectual property, governance, compliance, insurance and a range of other legal and business matters.

Much of the international complexity stems from the nature of Newpark’s customer base. Many of its clients are government-owned entities, which bring heightened regulatory scrutiny, lengthy tender processes, and decisions about where to allocate resources amid uncertain outcomes. Smith has led the development of a new code of conduct, governance frameworks, and training programs tailored for a private company environment — the kind of infrastructure that did not exist when he arrived and now underpins daily operations.

He describes himself as a working GC, someone who manages people, coordinates global stakeholders, and still gets into the weeds on individual matters. Prioritization, he says, is the most essential skill in a lean legal department.

People, service & a long view

Smith grew up in a blue-collar family and was the first in his family to pursue a professional career, an experience that continues to shape his practical approach to leadership and problem-solving. Long before law school, before engineering, before Matlock, Smith waited tables. He brings it up readily, not as a biographical footnote but as a formative experience he believes shaped him as much as any courtroom or boardroom. Waiting tables, he says, taught him about teamwork, humility and accountability — and about what it actually means to serve someone.

“The CEO and CFO are my clients, and I try to provide practical, responsive service — it’s no different than when it comes to serving tables in a restaurant,” he says.

That mindset runs through everything Smith does. He does not aim to win every legal point. Instead, he focuses on identifying material risks, communicating them plainly, and helping the business make informed decisions with confidence. It is an approach shaped equally by a Dayton classroom, a global oilfield services giant, and a restaurant dining room — a sum of experiences that, he believes, is exactly the point.

Now, with the foundational work behind him, Smith sees Newpark entering a new phase. The team is in place. The frameworks are built. The focus is shifting toward growth — potential acquisitions, international expansion, and the momentum that all the hard work of the last few years was meant to create. For someone who enjoys building teams, processes and practical solutions, it is a rewarding place to be.