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.
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.
The case of Aaron v Cooper went to the supreme court, and Reid and her brother were able to witness Thurgood Marshall’s argument and the historic decision that continued the implementation of Brown v Board in all states.
Although Judge Reid received a scholarship to New York University Law School, George encouraged his sister to join him at Yale and "make a way out of no way" despite the financial burden.
[14] 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.
[9] 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.
Reid took a leave of absence at Barnard to serve as the General Counsel for the New York State Division of Youth under Governor Hugh Carey's administration in 1976.
[11] 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.
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.
Though Reid was considered a little known figure in Washington, her nomination was praised by Councilmember Wilhelmina J. Rolark (D-Ward 8), who was the head of the Council's Judiciary Committee at the time.
[11] As the Corporation Counsel, Judge Reid oversaw all the official legal affairs of the District, supervised about 200 employees and had an operating budget of $6.2 million.
Mayor Barry's legal counsel investigated the incident and found no "abuse of discretion" by Reid, but noted a "real or apparent" conflict of interest.
[20] In 1985, Judge Reid took a year-long leave from the Corporation Counsel's office to teach at the University of West Virginia College of Law.
In 1986, after she completed the one-year leave, she left the Corporation Counsel's office to take a job with the law firm of Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Heine, Underberg, Manley & Casey.
There, Reid used her previous experience as Inspector General of the EPA to specialize in environmental litigation, appellate cases and white collar crime.