The Judicial Conference honored Judge Fern M. Smith during its biannual meeting, with a resolution commemorating her tenure as Director of the Federal Judicial Center from 1999 to 2003. The resolution read in part:

"Under Judge Smith’s leadership, the Federal Judicial Center has maintained the excellence of its educational and research services for the federal courts and helped those courts deal with emerging challenges such as those at the intersection of law, science, and technology, as well as the mutual needs of the United States and foreign judicial systems to know more about one
another.
“Judge Smith brought to the Center her experience as a prominent litigator and a state and federal judge, and as the Chair of the Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on the Rules of Evidence. She brought as well an interest in the well-being of the federal court family, which is reflected not only in the high regard in which she is held by the Chief Justice and the Board of the Center, who selected her in 1999, but also in the close working relationship she has established with the personnel of the Center.
“The Judicial Conference is pleased to express its gratitude to Judge Smith for her leadership of the Center and for the support the Center has provided to the committees of the Conference under her direction, and wishes her well as she returns to the Northern District of California."