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firm. Still, despite being cancer free, shecouldn’t forget the truth of her own mortality.So she and her husband saved up to sailaround the world for an initially undeter-mined length of time, which turned into asix-year adventure involving 50 countries,expansive solitude, and pirates.

Back in Dallas, Farrow-Gillespie is a co-founding managing partner in Farrow-Gillespie & Heath, is a member of the LCDJazz Trio, and is publishing a book on herglobal sailing trip this year.

Liza Farrow-Gillespie fishing with her feet aboard the Heartsong III off the coast of Australia. Farrow-Gillespie and her husbandtook six years off to complete a 37,000-mile sailing circumnavigation with stops in more than four dozen countries.

After trying college, Liza Farrow-Gillespiemoved to Los Angeles to play at piano barsand work as a studio backup singer forsome famous musicians. She eventuallyreturned to Texas, married her high schoolsweetheart, and got an accounting degree.Then, two years into law school, she foundout she had cancer.

Farrow-Gillespie went on to pass the barexam, clerk for renowned U.S. District CourtJudge Barefoot Sanders, and work as a liti-gation associate of a well-respected Dallas

IN RECESS

SAIL AWAYA Dallas attorney sucks the marrow out of life.

INTERVIEW BY LINDSAY STAFFORD MADER

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You’ve had more adventures in your 61 yearsthan most people could hope for. What is yourperspective on living? All I know about life is thatnone of us are getting out alive. We have so many littlesayings—life is short, carpe diem, nobody says on hisdeathbed “I wish I had spent more time at the office,” eatdessert first, and so on—that the reality can get lost.Sometimes it takes a health scare, which was the case forme, to get past the clichés and to become a believer. Forme, this means finding the joy in everything I do and giv-ing everything I’ve got to every task and every person inmy life, every day.

What is your most mem-orable experience? Ofcourse, the best day of mylife was marrying my red-headed husband, but out-side of that, singing backupvocals on the soundtrackfor the film Out of Africa. Iloved the book so much,and when we did therecording session with a64-piece all-star orchestra,the music was truly amaz-ing. And then the sound-track won the AcademyAward. It was a life highlight all the way around.

As to sailing, it would be being alone on watch duringour Pacific crossing—3,000 miles of open ocean from theGalapagos to French Polynesia. Or it might be the pirateencounter off the coast of Somalia. Or it might be whenwe were nearly plowed under by a military convoy in theGulf of Aden. Or it might be in the Adriatic when I wassinging on deck and hit a high note and an entire pod ofdolphins stuck their heads up simultaneously and lookedat me like, “What the heck?”

My most memorable attorney experiences happenedwhile I was clerking for the late Judge Barefoot Sanders. Istill hear his voice in my head, usually saying, “Move italong, counselor.”

In L.A., you sang on commercials and inmovies as well as back up for the Carpenters,Willie Nelson, and Joe Cocker. What do youlike most about singing? Singing is uplifting andsatisfying. It’s like Gatorade for a lawyer’s thirsty analyti-cal soul. The beauty of singing is that anyone can do it,and in my humble opinion, everyone should at everyopportunity.

Your Dallas-based jazz trio includes two otherattorneys. When hanging out together, do y’alltalk law or music? Both, but not much. It is such ahappy happenstance when we all have time to play thatwe pretty much do nothing but play.

What five albums are you loving right now?Here are the first five on my current playlist: Sam Smith’s“In the Lonely Hour,” Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the Keyof Life,” Annie Lennox’s “Nostalgia,” Melody Gardot’s“My One and Only Thrill,” and Herbie Hancock’s “Head

Hunters.”

In order to sail aroundthe world, you and yourhusband saved for fouryears by cutting spend-ing. Was it painful tochange your lifestyleand was it worth it? Yesand yes. We had to start overwhen we got back, but I lookat it as having taken ourretirement in the middle. Iwill happily work now untilI drop.

You visited dozens ofcountries during your sailing adventure. Whichwas your favorite? There were so many island coun-tries in the South Pacific and Caribbean where weanchored in a beautiful bay with a perfect beach andturquoise water and never saw another soul. But I wouldhave to say New Zealand was our favorite—in partbecause it was so difficult to get there (a week’s passagefrom Tonga in gale-force winds), and in part because we were there for over a year and the people are as down-to-earth and hospitable as the scenery is unbelievablygorgeous.

How did the trip change you? I see just about every-thing differently now than I did before spending six yearson a sailboat. It’s too much to go into here, but come seeme after work if you want to philosophize on perspective.Bring a nice shiraz.

How do you manage to merge your free spiritwith the life of a lawyer? A month or two ago, it hitme that the law firm Julie Heath and I have built [Farrow-Gillespie & Heath] is actually (knock on wood) success-ful. I get to go to work every day and practice law with agroup of extraordinary individuals. That gives me greatjoy. TBJ

IN RECESS

Liza Farrow-Gillespie aboard the Heartsong III in the Mid-Atlantic Ocean.