Writer, Speaker and Podcast Host
Lisa Smith is a writer, speaker, podcast host, and former practicing lawyer and law firm executive. She is the author of the award-winning memoir, Girl Walks Out of a Bar. The book recounts her descent into and recovery from “high-functioning” alcohol and cocaine addiction in big New York City law firms. Lisa’s story launched her into the movement to advance well-being in the legal profession.
She co-hosts the Signal Award-winning podcast, Recovery Rocks, an inclusive discussion of issues affecting people in all kinds of recovery. She and her podcast co-host are the creators of THE SOBRIETY DECK, a 50-card deck with tips, insights, and encouragement for anyone evaluating their relationship with alcohol.
Lisa is the author of the acclaimed memoir, Girl Walks Out of a Bar. The book recounts her descent into and recovery from “high-functioning” alcohol and cocaine addiction in big New York City law firms. Lisa’s story launched her to the forefront of the movement to advance wellbeing in the legal profession. Lisa was named one of the New York Law Journal‘s 2020 “Trailblazers”.
THE SOBRIETY DECK
Recovery Rocks podcast with Tawny Lara.
Rock and Roll-loving, Gen X lawyer Lisa Smith is in a 12-step recovery program from addiction to alcohol and drugs. The equally rock-obsessed millennial writer Tawny Lara finds her addiction recovery through blogging. Give them a couple microphones and you get the Recovery Rocks podcast– a new and inclusive discussion for anyone currently in or curious about recovery.
About the Book
Lisa Smith was a bright young lawyer at a prestigious law firm in NYC when alcoholism and drug addiction took over her life. What was once a way she escaped her insecurity and negativity as a teenager became a means of coping with the anxiety and stress of an impossible workload.
Girl Walks Out of a Bar explores Smith’s formative years, her decade of alcohol and drug abuse, divorce, and her road to recovery. In this darkly comic and wrenchingly honest story, Smith describes how her circumstances conspire with her predisposition to depression and self-medication in an environment ripe for addiction to flourish. When her close-knit group of high-achieving friends celebrate the end of their grueling workdays with alcohol-fueled nights at the city’s clubs and summer weekends partying at the beach the feel-good times can spiral wildly out of control.
Girl Walks Out of a Bar is a candid portrait of alcoholism through the lens of gritty New York realism. Beneath the façade of success lies the reality of addiction.
Girl Walks Out of a Bar has received four independent press awards.
