Diane Wood

Diane Wood
Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
Assumed office
October 1, 2013
Preceded by Frank Easterbrook
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
Assumed office
June 30, 1995
Appointed by Bill Clinton
Preceded by William Bauer
Personal details
Born Diane Pamela Wood
(1950-07-04) July 4, 1950
Plainfield, New Jersey, U.S.
Spouse(s) Steve Van (Early 1970s)
Dennis Hutchinson (1978–1998)
Robert Sufit (2006–present)
Alma mater University of Texas, Austin

Diane Pamela Wood (born July 4, 1950) is the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School.

Wood was born in Plainfield, New Jersey. When she was young, she moved with her family to Texas, where her mother still lives. Wood graduated with a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin's Plan II Honors program in 1971. She earned her J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1975, where she was an editor of the Texas Law Review, graduated with high honors and Order of the Coif, and was among the first women at the University of Texas admitted as a member of the Friar Society. Wood then clerked for Judge Irving Goldberg of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals from 1975 to 1976 and for Associate Justice Harry Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1976 to 1977. She was among the first women to clerk at the Supreme Court.

After working in private practice and the executive branch, Wood became the third woman ever hired as a law professor at the University of Chicago Law School. Wood was nominated to the Seventh Circuit by President Bill Clinton on March 31, 1995. She is considered a liberal intellectual counterweight to the Seventh Circuit's conservative heavyweights, Richard Posner and Frank Easterbrook.

Commentators have called Wood a leading candidate for nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Barack Obama. She was a candidate to replace Justice David Souter when he left the bench in 2009, though that seat went to Sonia Sotomayor. In 2010, she was on the short list of potential nominees to take retiring Justice John Paul Stevens' seat, but that nomination instead went to U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan.

Early life

Diane Pamela Wood was born on July 4, 1950, in Plainfield, New Jersey, to Lucille Padmore Wood and Kenneth Reed Wood.[1] Wood lived in nearby Westfield, New Jersey, where her father was an accountant at Exxon, and her mother worked for the Washington Rock Girl Scout Council. She is the middle of three children; she has an older sister Judy and a younger brother Bob. When Wood was sixteen, Exxon transferred her father’s job to Houston, Texas, and the family moved there. In 1968, Wood graduated as valedictorian from Westchester High School in Houston.

Education

Wood went on to the University of Texas at Austin, in the Plan II Honors program. In May 1971, after three years of study, Wood earned a B.A. with highest honors and special honors in English. At the time, she intended to go on to graduate studies in comparative literature. However, she decided to go to law school instead, and enrolled in the University of Texas School of Law in 1972.[2] During law school, Wood was an editor of the Texas Law Review and a member of the Women's Legal Caucus. Wood earned her J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1975, graduating at the top of her class with high honors and Order of the Coif.

Professional career

Wood clerked for Judge Irving Goldberg of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals from 1975 to 1976 and for Associate Justice Harry Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1976 to 1977. Wood was one of the first women to serve as a law clerk for a Supreme Court Justice. After clerking at the Supreme Court, Wood was an attorney-advisor for the Office of the Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State from 1977 to 1978. From 1978 to 1980, she practiced at the law firm Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C.[3][4]

Wood began her teaching career as an assistant professor of law at Georgetown University from 1980 to 1981. In 1981, Wood settled in Chicago and joined the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School. She was the third woman ever hired as a law professor at the University of Chicago and the only woman on the faculty when she began in 1981. Wood served as Professor of Law from 1989 to 1992, Associate Dean from 1990 to 1995, and (as the first woman to be honored with a named chair) the Harold J. and Marion F. Green Professor of International Legal Studies from 1992 to 1995. Since her appointment to the Seventh Circuit, Wood has continued to teach at the University of Chicago Law School as a Senior Lecturer in Law, along with fellow Seventh Circuit judges Frank Easterbrook and Richard Posner.[5]

Wood was a special assistant to the Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice from 1985 to 1987. From 1993 to 1995, she served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for international, appellate, and policy in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice.

Wood is a member of the American Law Institute and sits on its Council.[6] She is also a member of the American Society of International Law, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences where she serves as Chair of the Council.[7] A past member of the American Bar Association, she has served on the governing councils of the ABA’s Section of Antitrust Law and its Section of International Law and Practice. Wood has pursued various law reform projects through the American Bar Association and the Brookings Institution Project on Civil Justice Reform. She was also instrumental in developing the University of Chicago’s first policy on sexual harassment. While still a full-time law school professor (prior to joining the Department of Justice and the Court of Appeals), she was a member of Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women.[8][9]

Federal judicial service

Wood was nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit by President Bill Clinton on March 31, 1995, to a seat vacated when William Joseph Bauer took senior status. She was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate and received her commission on June 30, 1995. Wood became the second woman ever to sit on the Seventh Circuit. On the bench, Wood is known for building consensus on the court and rallying other judges around her positions.[10] Neil A. Lewis has called Wood an “unflinching and spirited intellectual counterweight" to the Seventh Circuit's well-known conservative heavyweights Richard Posner and Frank Easterbrook.[11]

Wood is considered a likely candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court in an Obama Administration.[12][13] Speculation that she might be appointed intensified after Justice David Souter's retirement announcement,[11][14] and Wood was the first candidate interviewed for the post by President Barack Obama, who met with her at the White House while she was visiting from Chicago.[15] When Justice John Paul Stevens announced that he would retire at the end of October 2010 term, Wood's name was again widely put forward as a likely replacement.[16][17][18]

Noteworthy rulings

Law Reform Work

Wood was elected to the American Law Institute in 1990 and was elected to the ALI Council in 2003.[21] She is Chair of the ALI's Nominating Committee and an Adviser on two projects: the Restatement Fourth, The Foreign Relations Law of the United States project (Jurisdiction)[22] and the Restatement Third, The Law of American Indians.[23] She was previously an Adviser on the Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation project and the Transnational Rules of Civil Procedure project.

Writings

Wood has been called a "rock star of the written word" by Mother Jones.[24] She has written extensively in many areas of the law, and a full bibliography can be found at the University of Chicago Law School website. Some representative works include:

Personal life

Wood is married to Robert L. Sufit, a professor of neurology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, to whom she was introduced by her fellow Seventh Circuit Judge Ilana Rovner.[8] She previously was married in 1978 to Dennis Hutchinson, a professor at the University of Chicago School of Law.[8] Wood married her first husband, Steve Van, while both were students in law school.[8][25] Wood has three children with Hutchinson and three stepchildren.[26]

She plays oboe and English horn in the North Shore Chamber Orchestra in Evanston, Illinois, in the Chicago Bar Association Symphony Orchestra, and in the West Suburban Concert Band in LaGrange, Illinois.

Wood lives in Hinsdale, Illinois,[8] and is Protestant.[16]

See also

References

  1. Holland, Jesse (2010-04-09). "Potential Obama nominees for the Supreme Court". The Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2010-04-09. Retrieved 2010-04-09.
  2. Herman, Eric (September 1995). "Wood Comes to Seventh Circuit with Credentials and Common Sense". Chicago Lawyer. p. 4.
  3. "Diane P. Wood: University of Chicago School of Law faculty biography".
  4. "Diane P. Wood: American Bar Association biography" (PDF).
  5. "University of Chicago School of Law, List of Senior Lecturers".
  6. American Law Institute - Officers and Council
  7. https://www.amacad.org/contentu.aspx?i=270
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 John McCormick & Jeff Coen (May 24, 2009). "Supreme Court short list:Chicago appellate judge is driven, versatile 'moderate liberal'". Chicago Tribune.
  9. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/20100411_Many_factors_weigh_into_Supreme_Court_choice.html
  10. 1 2 Pallasch, Abdon M. (November 13, 2009). "Chicago mezuzah discrimination federal case revived". Chicago Sun Times.
  11. 1 2 Neil A. Lewis, "Potential Justice Offers a Counterpoint in Chicago, New York Times (May 11, 2009).
  12. Adam Liptak (February 5, 2009). "Ginsburg Has Surgery for Pancreatic Cancer". New York Times.
  13. Carrie Johnson (February 6, 2009). "Ginsburg illness puts focus on Obama's choices". Washington Post.
  14. "A look at potential Obama nominees to high court". Associated Press. April 30, 2009.
  15. Zeleny, Jeff (May 20, 2009). "Search for Supreme Court Justice Reaches Interview Stage". New York Times.
  16. 1 2 Nina Totenberg (April 7, 2010). NPR website "Supreme Court May Soon Lack Protestant Justices" Check |url= value (help). NPR: Heard on Morning Edition.
  17. Bob Secter & Rex Huppke (April 10, 2010). "Judge with Chicago Ties is on Supreme Court Short List". Chicago Tribune.
  18. Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Charlie Savage (April 9, 2010). "Stevens’s Retirement Is Political Test for Obama". The New York Times. Retrieved April 11, 2010.
  19. Michael Miner (November 13, 2009). "The Mezuzah Case — A Victory for Judge Diane Wood]". Chicago Reader.
  20. Lyle Dennison, [http://www.scotusblog.com/2010/04/big-decision-on-an-uncertain-record/ Big decision on an uncertain record? SCOTUSblog (Apr. 19, 2010)
  21. American Law Institute - List of Officers and Council
  22. Restatement Fourth, The Foreign Relations Law of the United States - List of Project Participants
  23. Restatement Third, The Law of American Indians - List of Project Participants
  24. Stephanie Mencimer, Sonia Sotomayor's Prose Problem, Mother Jones (June 3, 2009)
  25. McCormick, John; Coen, Jeff (May 24, 2009). "Supreme Court short list: Chicago appellate judge is driven, versatile 'moderate liberal'". Chicago Tribune.
  26. Capital University Law School Sullivan Lecture - About the Speaker

External links

Legal offices
Preceded by
William Bauer
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
1995–present
Incumbent
Preceded by
Frank Easterbrook
Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
2013–present
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