The designer is Jonathan Smith, a law graduate of the University of Birmingham. He trained at a lawyers practice from 1977, and became a solicitor in 1979.

These presentations are derived from over 35 years of legal knowledge and practice. His experience is that his clients who seek advise about family breakdown desperately need clear information. He has devised these Legal Maps as a simple cheap way of providing good legal information quickly

He has worked in private practice advising clients about family law problems and representing them since he was admitted. He and the practice have always undertaken publicly funded work, which means that he has advised on a very broad range of family law issues. He has experience presenting cases in the Family Proceedings Court, the County Court and in the High Court, and in other areas of law before Tribunals, Magistrates Courts and the Crown Court. 

He was a member of the management committee of a 'not for profit' mediation service after it came into existence in 1990 for 22 years. He trained as a mediator in 1997 and he has worked with a mediation service. He is authorised to provide publicly funded mediation services.

He has always had a personal interest in maps, and began to develop the ideas behind these presentations before 1990. He is married with four children.