Wald, Patricia McGowan, 1928-

Patricia McGowan Wald was born in Torrington, Connecticut, in 1928. She received a B.A. degree from Connecticut College in 1948 and a LL.B. from the Yale Law School in 1951. From 1951-1952, Wald served as a law clerk to Judge Jerome Frank, and from 1952-1953 was an associate in the firm, Arnold, Fortas & Porter. During the sixties, Wald held a number of conference and commission positions studying crime, violence, civil disorder, criminal justice, and law and poverty. She also served as an attorney with the Neighborhood Legal Services Program, the Center for Law and Social Policy in Washington, D.C., and was co-chair of the Ford Foundation Drug Abuse Research Project. From 1972-1977, Wald was an attorney for the Mental Health Law project, and the Project's litigation director from 1975-1977. Wald was the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs in the Department of Justice from 1977-1979. She was appointed circuit judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1979 and served as its chief judge from 1986-1991. Wald was appointed to the United Nations' International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in 1999.