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Inez Smith Reid (born April 7, 1937) was the Corporation Counsel for the District of Columbia and a judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, the highest court for the District of Columbia.

Reid was born in New Orleans and raised in Washington, D.C., where she graduated from Dunbar High School. She began college at Howard University before graduating from Tufts University. After college, she joined her twin brother,George Bundy Smith, also a future judge, at Yale Law School, where they were the only two black students in their class. At Yale, Reid roomed with future delegate from D.C. Eleanor Holmes Norton and befriended Marian Wright Edelman.

After law school, Reid taught law in the newly independent Democratic Republic of the Congo and earned a Ph.D at Columbia University. Unable to find work at law firms due to her race and gender, she took a series of teaching positions in New York at Lehman College, Hunter College, Brooklyn College, and Barnard College. During the Carter administration, Reid moved to D.C. to work as Deputy General Counsel for Regulation Review at the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare and later as the first Inspector General of the Environmental Protection Agency. From 1983 to 1986, she served as Corporation Counsel for the District of Columbia, leaving to join the firm Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey.

In 1995, Reid became an associate judge on the D.C. Court of Appeals, appointed by President Bill Clinton. At the time she retired from active status in 2011, she was the court's most prolific judge. After serving as a senior judge for six years, Reid retired on December 12, 2017.

Family and Education
Inez Smith (Judge Reid) and her twin brother, George Smith, were born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1937. Judge Reid's mother moved her children to Washington DC in 1938 or 1939, when it was still segregated. The family was reunited with extended relatives, and they lived with their grandmother and great uncle in the Black community of Northeast DC. Judge Reid recalled her upbringing in DC as defined by her nurturing community and her life revolved that revolved around church, school and family, with family at the center of everything. Though many of the Black communities DC at the time were producing highly educated Black professionals, many could not find work because of the prevalence of racism. Many professionals that had received PhDs and Masters from prestigious universities would return to teach in the segregated Black high schools such as Dunbar High School, Judge Reid's alma mater. Judge Reid reflects on her experience at Dunbar as being surrounded with highly educated Black faculty and motivated students. She recalls that this created an electric culture where students were constantly reminded of those who achieved greatness before them despite the odds. Judge Reid studied French beginning in elementary school and eventually became fluent, and took on Latin in her high school as well.

When she graduated from high school, Judge Reid studied at Howard University before she went on to study at Tufts University, where she was exposed for the first time to students from different racial, ethnic and geographical backgrounds to her own. When she started at Tufts as a sophomore, her intention was not to become a lawyer but rather gain a well-rounded education. This goal was exemplified when Judge Reid studied Sociology, Literature, English, Religion and Philosophy during her time at Tufts. Judge Reid graduated magna cum laude from Tufts in 1962.

Judge Reid's brother George had been studying at Yale University, and in their senior years the twins decided to apply to attend Yale Law School together. Judge Reid and her brother would go on to become the only two Black students in their class at Yale Law School, and were often mistaken for janitors and or the school's clerical staff by their white classmates. Despite these negative experiences, Judge Reid remembers her time at Yale as overall positive, with great professors and courses and the opportunity to forge new relationships, such as with James O. Freidman, the late, former president of Dartmouth College. Her roommate was Marian Wright Edelman, who is the president and founder of Children's Defense Fund.

Judge Reid graduated Yale Law School in 1962. She would go on to earn her masters degree from UCLA in 1963 in political science, and a PhD in government and public law from Columbia University in 1968 and an L.L.M. (Masters of Laws) from University of Virginia School of Law.

Career
Teaching in Congo During her third year at Yale, she was told by the Associate Dean of the Law School that she and her brother would not be hired by any law firms and instead she should look at government jobs. Judge Reid applied to two government jobs to be safe, and ended up jobless at graduation. Fortunately, she received a Ford Foundation Foreign Area Training Fellowship and enrolled in a master's degree program at UCLA where she studied political science with a concentration in African studies. In the following year, she accepted a position as a professor in Congo/Lepodville, Africa. The opportunity was jointly funded by Yale Law School, the Ford Foundation and the Congolese government, and her role was to teach students studying to become Magistrate Judges. Judge Reid used her French fluency to teach her law students in French while the nation faced civil war in Congo/Lepodville. Judge Reid entered the education sphere in the previously French/Belgian colonized area at a time where the Black community was underserved and needed a formal educational structure. She worked alongside European professors and administrators who at times belittled her American education. In Africa, just like in the other places she lived and worked, Judge Reid experienced racism and had to prove herself to those around her.

Teaching in the US Her teaching experience, coupled with the limited job market for Black law school graduates, propelled Judge Reid into education after she finished her time in Congo. She started her 12 year long teaching career at the State University of New York while enrolled at Columbia University's Graduate School. Judge Reid and would go on to teach at Lehman College, Hunter College, Brooklyn College, Barnard College, the University of Virginia College of Law, the West Virginia University College of Law, and the City University of New York She also was a constitutional scholar and adjunct Professor at American University in Washington DC. .

Judge Reid taught political science at Barnard College, Brooklyn College and Hunter College and taught African studies and political science as an assistant professor at the State University of New York. Judge Reid also has scholarly works published in the fields of constitutional law, African American studies and African studies, and environmental law.

New York State Administration Judge Reid supplemented her work as a professor with involvement in non-government organizations that served Black women and community development.

While Judge Reid was teaching at Columbia University's Barnard College in the 1970s, her brother encouraged her to pursue opportunities that used her law degree. Judge Reid then took a leave of absence at Barnard to serve as the General Council for the New York State Division of Youth under New York Governor Hugh Carey's administration.

Work in the Carter Administration In 1977 she was called upon by President Carter's administration to serve as the Deputy General Counsel for Regulation Review of what was the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Judge Reid moved to DC and later worked for the Carter Administration again as the Inspector General of the Environmental Protection Agency.

DC Corporation Counsel When President Reagan was elected, Judge Reid and her fellow Inspector Generals that served under the Carter Administration were all fired. In March 1981, Judge Reid moved on to serve as chief of the Legislation and Opinion section of what was then called the Corporation Counsel for the District of Columbia, which is now the Attorney General of the District of Columbia. This office had a staff of 100 lawyers which represented the city in civil litigation as well as a wide variety of misdemeanor prosecutions, more serious traffic charges, and juvenile cases. Judge Reid was nominated as the Deputy Corporation Counsel by Mayor Marion Barry on September 15, 1986. She replaced Judith W. Rogers, who she worked for as a top deputy for 2 and a half years. Judge Reid's position as Corporation Counsel placed her in a supervisory role in the Legal Counsel division. Though she was considered a little known figure in Washington, her nomination was praised by City Council member Wilhelmina J. Rolark (D-Ward 8), who was the head of the Judiciary Committee at the time.

Gause Promotion  Judge Reid faced some controversy as the Corporation Counsel in November of 1983 when she promoted Laphalia Joyce Gause to a position as her executive assistant that would pay $43,000-a-year after Reid cosigned a note for Gause to buy a $191,000 house. Judge Reid argued that there was no impropriety surrounding the promotion because Gause had been recommended for the position six months prior by her former supervisor. Reid also explained that she had consulted a D.C. Ethics counselor before she moved on the promotion. Mayor Barry asked his legal counsel to investigate the incident the following spring, and it was found that no abuse of discretion had taken place, however, there was a real or apparent conflict of interest in the fact that the two women were involved in jointly owned property and employment supervision.

Private Law Practice In 1985, Judge Reid took a year-long leave from the Corporation Counsel's office, during which she was a William Maier Jr. Visiting Professor of Law at the University of West Virginia College of Law. In 1986, after she completed the one year leave, she left the Corporation Counsel to take a job with the law firm of Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Heine, Underberg, Manley & Casey. There, Judge Reid used her previous experience as Inspector General of the EPA to specialize in environmental litigation, appellate cases and white color crime. Judge Reid also worked at the law firm of Graham & James and Lewis, White & Clay, where she specialized in litigation, environmental law, commercial law and white color crime.

D.C Court of Appeals In 1995, Judge Reid was nominated to the D.C. Court of Appeals by President Bill Clinton. Reid replaced Emmet G. Sullivan who was appointed to the U.S. District Court bench. Judge Reid was sworn in by her twin brother, who was serving as an associate judge of the New York Appeals court.

It was reported by the National Law Journal that Jude Reid was the court's most prolific judge because she issued 85 written opinions over the course of four years. She was in the middle of the nine active judges on the court in terms of timing, as she averaged about 246 days per written opinion.

Judge Reid was one of the five affirming judges in a 2010 case surrounding same-sex marriage. In the 81 page opinion, Reid and her fellow affirming judges concluded that the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics acted within the law when it rejected a initiative presented by an anti-gay marriage group to institute a referendum on same-sex marriage in the District.

Judge Reid was appointed to the D.C. Access to Justice Commission, which was created in 2005 by Chief Judge Wagner. The commission was made up of 17 people from the justice and law sector, including judges, D.C Bar leaders, lawyers, and leaders who serve low-income communities. Members of the commission were to reach out to interested parties and collect information to formulate a plan to ensure that all District residents who need a lawyer in civil protection have access to one.

Judge Reid retired from the court on April 2, 2011.