Dr Lesley Jane Smith is Professor of Law at the Leuphana University of Lueneburg, Germany and admitted to practice as member of the Law Society of Scotland and the Hanseatic Bar of Bremen, and a partner in the law firm Weber-Steinhaus & Smith in Bremen. She is a Board member and Vice-president of the International Institute of Space Law (IISL), and former Honorary General Counsel to the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). She was appointed to the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) as a corresponding Fellow in 2019, and as a full member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) in 2015. She is an expert on procurement and contracts in the space sector, and has published widely on commercial aspects of space law and liability. In 2020, she was appointed to serve as Alternate Ombudsmen to the European Space Agency, and is currently serving as expert on an enquiry commission dealing with ethical aspects of the impact of AI with earth observation data.