Diane Wood

Diane Pamela Wood (born July 4, 1950) is an American attorney who serves as the director of the American Law Institute, a senior circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School.

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.

Diane Pamela Wood was born on July 4, 1950, in Plainfield, New Jersey, to Lucille Padmore Wood and Kenneth Reed Wood.

She 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 second of three children, with an older sister and a younger brother.

When Wood was 16, her family moved to Houston, Texas.

In 1968, she graduated as valedictorian of Westchester High School in Houston.

Wood graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1972 with a bachelor's degree in English with high honors.

She was then accepted to University of Texas School of Law.

There, Wood was an editor of the Texas Law Review and a member of the Women's Legal Caucus.

Wood earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Texas School of Law in 1975, graduating with high honors and Order of the Coif.

She was among the first women at the University of Texas admitted as a member of the Friar Society.

Wood clerked for Judge Irving Goldberg of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from 1975 to 1976 and for Justice Harry Blackmun of the United States Supreme Court from 1976 to 1977.

She 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 United States Department of State from 1977 to 1978.

From 1978 to 1980, she practiced at the law firm Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C.

Wood began her teaching career as an assistant professor of law at Georgetown University from 1980 to 1981.

In 1981, she 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 was a special assistant to the Assistant Attorney General at the United States Department of Justice from 1985 to 1987.

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, she 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.

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.

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.

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 (before joining the Department of Justice and the Court of Appeals), she was a member of Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women.

In January 2021, the University of Chicago Law School, where Wood teaches as a senior lecturer, announced that it would honor Wood for her 25th anniversary on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit with a special edition of essays published by her colleagues in the University of Chicago Law Review.

President Bill Clinton nominated her to the Seventh Circuit on March 31, 1995.

She is considered a liberal intellectual counter to Richard Posner and Frank H. Easterbrook.

On March 31, 1995, President Bill Clinton nominated Wood to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit after William J. Bauer assumed senior status.

She was confirmed unanimously by the Senate and received her commission on June 30, 1995.

Wood became the second woman ever to sit on the Seventh Circuit.

She is known for building consensus on the court and rallying other judges around her positions.

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.

She served as Chief Judge from October 1, 2013, to July 3, 2020.

On December 9, 2021, Wood announced she would assume senior status upon confirmation of her successor.

She assumed senior status on September 7, 2022.