Professor Smith is an expert in the area of domestic violence. She served for many years as the Executive Assistant District Attorney for Domestic Violence, Sex Crimes and Child Abuse in the Kings County District Attorney's Office. She is the Chairperson of the American Bar Association Committee on ReEntry and Collateral Consequences and is a member of the New York City Bar Council on Criminal Justice and the Domestic Violence Committee. Professor Smith is also an appointee to the Governors Advisory Council on Domestic Violence and the Independent Judicial Screening Panel for the Second District, newly created by the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals of the State of New York. She has initiated several innovative programs to combat domestic violence that have garnered national attention, lectures frequently on domestic violence issues, and is often quoted in the media on this subject. She has directed the Prosecutors Clinic for more than a decade, and recently broadened the clinic's scope to include the Family Justice Center Clinic. She joined the faculty in 1987.