The Honorable Patricia Wald served for twenty years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (1979-1999), including five years as Chief Judge (1986-1991). She is a member of the American Law Institute (1973-present), was elected to its council (1978-present), served as a vice president (1988-1993 and 1993-1998), and is an advisor to the Model Penal Code, Sentencing Project (2001-present). Judge Wald is a member of the American Philosophical Society (2000-present), and serves on the Open Society Institute's Justice Initiative Board (2002-present), including two years as chair (2002-2004). Judge Wald was a member of the President’s Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the U.S. Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction (2004-2005), served as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (1999-2001), and was a member of the Executive Board of the American Bar Association's Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (CEELI) (1994-1999).

Prior to serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District Court of Columbia, Judge Wald was the Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs at the Department of Justice (1977-1979). She was an attorney with the Mental Health Law Project (1972-1977), an attorney with the Center for Law and Social Policy (1971-1972), co-director of the Ford Foundation Drug Abuse Research Project (1970), an attorney with the Neighborhood Legal Services Program (1968-1970), and an attorney with the Office of Criminal Justice at the Department of Justice (1967-1968). Judge Wald was a consultant for the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Criminal Justice (1966-1967), a member of the President’s Commission on Crime in the District of Columbia (1965-66), a consultant for the Office of Economic Opportunity at the National Conference on Law and Poverty (1965), a member of the National Conference on Bail and Criminal Justice (1963-1964), a research and editorial assistant for Frederick M. Rowe, Esq. (1959-1962), and in private practice at the firm of Arnold, Fortas and Porter (now Arnold & Porter LLP) (1952-1953).

Judge Wald clerked for the Honorable Jerome Frank on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1951-1952), and received her B.A. from the Connecticut College for Women and her J.D. from Yale Law School. Judge Wald has received more than 20 honorary degrees. She is the author of "Doing Right by our Kids: A Case Study in the Perils of Making Policy on Television Violence" (1994), "Women in Criminal Justice" (1983), and "Law and Poverty" (1965), and co-author of "Dealing with Drug Abuse" (1972) and "Bail in the United States" (1964), as well as numerous articles.