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Early Life

Patricia Wald was born in Torrington, Connecticut to Joseph F. McGowan and Margaret O’Keefe on September 16, 1928 as their only child. Her father left when she was two years old, resulting in Wald being raised by her mother . She also had the company and support of extended relatives, most of whom were factory workers in Torrington and active union members. Wald had a Roman Catholic upbringing.

Wald worked in the brass mills as a teenager during the summers. She quickly was involved in the labor movement and union work and because of this she determined that law school was the path she would take in order to help protect underprivileged, working class people.

Education

Wald attended Torrington's St. Francis School and graduated in 1940. She then went on to graduate from Torrington High School in 1944 as the class valedictorian.

She graduated first in her class and Phi Beta Kappa at the Connecticut College for Women, now Connecticut College in 1948.She was able to attend Connecticut College for Women due to a scholarship she received from an elderly affluent woman from her hometown.

She then received a national fellowship from the Pepsi-Cola Company that allowed her to go on and earn her law degree from Yale Law School in 1951, graduating with only 11 other women that year out of a class of 200. Along with the national fellowship, Wald also paid for law school by being a waitress and taking research jobs with professors. While at Yale Law School, she was a student editor on the Yale Law Journal, one of two women in her class to do so.

Following her graduation, she clerked for Judge Jerome Frank of the U.S. Court of the Appeals for the Second Circuit for a year; during that year, Frank ruled on the appeal of the espionage conviction of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. She briefly entered private practice at the influential firm Arnold, Fortas, and Porter, for a year only to leave for a number of years to help raise her five children.

Professional Career

It would be six years before she would take on consulting and researching positions. She was a research and editorial assistant for Frederick M. Rowe, Esq. for 3 years from 1959-1962. She took a year off and then in 1963 spent a year as a member of the National Conference on Bail and Criminal Justice. Wald then worked as a consultant for the National Conference on Law & Poverty in their Office of Economic Opportunity. In 1964, she co-authored the book, Bail in the United States, which helped reform the nation's bail system. She then was appointed to the President’s Commission on Crime in the District of Columbia from 1965-1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. She then continued her consulting work for the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement & Administration of Criminal Justice for a year.

Wald then joined the U.S. Department of Justice in 1967 and was an attorney for a year in their Office of Criminal Justice. Then she was an attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services Program in Washington, D.C. from 1968-1970. During her tenor at Neighborhood Legal Services Program she was also a consultant for both the National Advisory Committee on Civil Disorder and the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. She also co-directed the Ford Foundation's Drug Abuse Research Project during 1970. She then became an attorney at the Center for Law and Social Policy from 1971-1972 and from there switched to work as an attorney at the Mental Health Law Project for 5 years. During that time, she was also the Director of the Office of Policy and Issues in the Vice Presidential Campaign of Sargent Shriver.

Wald then went back to the U.S Department of Justice from 1977-1979. A Democrat, she served as Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs during much of the President Carter administration before being appointed by Carter to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on April 30, 1979. This position was created with the passage of the Omnibus Judgeship Act of 1978, which created 152 new federal judgeships. The Carter Administration attempted to create a certain set and guidelines to be used by the U.S. Circuit Judge Nominating Commission that was geared to be a lot friendlier towards women in an effort to increase the number of women in federal judgeships. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 24, 1979, and received her commission on July 26, 1979. She remained on the court until November1999 and served as its chief judge from 1986 to 1991. She was the first woman to be appointed to the District of Columbia Circuit and was also the first woman to serve as it's chief judge.

In 1994, Wald became involved with American Bar Association Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (ABA CEELI), where she attempted to aid new Eastern European democracies rebuild their legal systems. This was on top of her duties as a federal judge.

Retiring from the U.S. courts, Wald was the United States's representative to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia from 1999-2002. She presided over numerous cases of people accused of genocide, some of the accused included those involved in the Srebrenica massacre.

On 6 February 2004, Wald was appointed to the Iraq Intelligence Commission, an independent panel tasked with investigating U.S. intelligence surrounding the United States' 2003 invasion of Iraq and Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Wald gained her appointment through Laurence Silberman, the co-chair of the committee. They both worked together at the District of Columbia Circuit Court and despite their ideological differences, Silberman had a great deal of respect for Wald.

Wald agreed to serve on The Constitution Project's Guantanamo Task Force in December 2010. The goal of this task force was to create an independent and bipartisan panel with the intention of looking at the federal government's police and actions regarding the capture, detention, and treatment of suspected terrorists during the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations.

In August 2012, Wald was confirmed by the Senate as a member of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board after being nominated by President Barrack Obama. On December 12, 2013, the Senate voted 57-41 to invoke cloture on her nomination to serve another six year-term on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, thus cutting off a filibuster that had been led by Republican senators. Later that same day, senators again voted 57-41 to confirm Wald to that six-year term, which expires on January 29, 2019. However, as of January 2017, Wald is no longer a member on the board.

She currently chairs the board of directors of the Open Society Justice Initiative and is a member of the board of directors for Mental Disability Rights International. She also continues to be on the board of the American Bar Association's International Criminal Court (ABA-ICC) Project. Wald is a member of the global council of the California International Law Center at the University of California, Davis School of Law. She is also a member of the America Law Institute and the American Philosophical Society.

Personal Life ­­­

Patricia Wald is married to Robert Lewis Wald, who was also a Yale Law School graduate. He passed away on September 7, 2010. They married in 1951, when Patricia was 23. They met in Europe as they were both traveling the region. Together they had three daughters and two sons within the span of seven years. The first child was Sarah who was born in 1953. Then their next child was Doug who was born in 1956. Johanna was born next, who was then followed by Frederica, and finally Thomas. Wald has 10 grandchildren between her 5 children.

Honors and Awards

Wald has more than 20 honorary degrees and in 2002 was honored for her lifelong commitment to Human Right by the International Human Rights Law Group. She also is the recipient of the Margaret Brent Award of the National Association of Women Judges.

Wald received the American Lawyer Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004 and then four years later in 2008, she was awarded the American Bar Association Medal, the highest honor awarded by the ABA. She also was recognized by the Constitution Project as the 2011 Constitutional Champion.

On November 20, 2013, Wald was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.