Judge Wald has focused her career on public interest law, working as an attorney with the Mental Health Law Project and the Center for Law and Social Policy, the Neighborhood Legal Services Program, and the Office of Criminal Justice at the Department of Justice. Judge Wald also served as co-director of the Ford Foundation Drug Abuse Research Project. In 1977, she was appointed Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs for the U.S. Department of Justice, and in 1979, she was nominated by President Jimmy Carter, and confirmed by the Senate, to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The first woman ever appointed to the D.C. Circuit, Judge Wald served for 20 years, five of which she spent as Chief Judge. Upon her retirement, Judge Wald accepted an appointment to serve on the 14-member panel of judges of the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague, where she spent the next two years hearing cases on wartime atrocities in the former Yugoslavia. Judge Wald serves on the Open Society Institute's Justice Initiative Board (2002-present), including two years as Chair (2002-2004), and is a member of the American Philosophical Society (2000-present). 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 was a member of the President’s Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the U.S. Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction (2004-2005), and has served on the Executive Board of the American Bar Association's Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (CEELI) (1994-1999). She is a graduate of Connecticut College for Women and Yale Law School.