
Richard L. Conn, M.S.
Partner
Richard grew up on an Illinois farm and went on to graduate from the University of Illinois with an MS in Agronomy. Richard began his regulatory affairs career in the regulatory affairs department of a major multinational agricultural pesticide basic producer. Over the course of his 18 years with this company, Richard developed a deep working knowledge of a large number of active ingredients and formulations.
In 1988, Richard co-founded Stewart Pesticide Registration Associates in Arlington, Virginia, and for the next 7 years, directed a staff of regulatory and scientific consultants while also delivering consulting services to the firm’s clients. In 1995, Richard co-founded Charles, Conn & Van Gemert, LLC, which later became Charles & Conn, LLC. Richard continued providing a wide variety of pesticide regulatory consulting services for clients, ranging from the largest in the business to small startups. In 2005, Richard co-founded Conn & Smith, Inc. Over the course of his career, Richard has experienced all phases of the pesticide registration process, and specializes in:
- Preparing of high-quality submission packages for all types of pesticides;
- Conducting NPIRS searches, and obtaining hard-to-find, publicly available pesticide-related documents;
- Data rights/data compensation costing exercises and negotiations; and
- Serving as an expert witness and delivering testimony in pesticide product liability lawsuits and data compensation cases.

Cynthia (Cindy) Ann Smith, M.S.
Partner
When Cindy was teaching chemistry at the University of Illinois, she discovered that she has a gift for explaining science to non-scientists. Combined with her academic training in chemistry, biology, and business administration, Cindy is highly qualified to guide Conn & Smith clients to successful and timely completion of complex pesticide regulatory projects.
Cindy began her pesticide regulatory career in the regulatory affairs department of an antimicrobial pesticide formulator and then for five years supported new food use active ingredient registrations and residue tolerances for a major multinational agricultural pesticide basic producer. Beginning in 1987, Cindy has focused on the registration of conventional and biochemical new active ingredients for agricultural food use pesticides. In 1997, Cindy founded her highly successful pesticide registration consulting firm, C. A. Smith Consulting, LLC. In 2005, she co-founded Conn & Smith. Cindy is known for preparing high quality, complete submissions that are easy to review and that are accepted without delays.
Cindy specializes in helping clients:
- Obtain U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registrations and Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) registrations for new active ingredients, new uses, and new formulations;
- Secure the associated food use authorizations [pesticide residue tolerances, tolerance exemptions, and maximum residue limits (MRLs)] for pesticide active ingredients and inert ingredients (formulants);
- Prepare joint review submissions and concurrent review submissions;
- Prepare reduced risk proposals;
- Manage complex pesticide projects;
- Develop pesticide regulatory data for all science areas;
- Understand the complexities of pesticide registration via FIFRA training and FIFRA coaching;
- Obtain authorizations for use of pesticides in organic agriculture; and
- Obtain biostimulant and pesticide device classifications from EPA to confirm products are not regulated under FIFRA.
Pesticide Regulatory Affairs Experience
Richard Conn (years) | Cindy Smith (years) | Total (years) | |
Consulting | 35 | 31 | 66 |
Total | 53 | 38 | 91 |