Diane Pamela Wood

Diane P. Wood is the Director of the American Law Institute (ALI), a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago, and a former U.S. Circuit Judge (for 29 years). Judge Wood attended the University of Texas at Austin (B.A. 1971, highest honors; J.D. 1975, Order of the Coif). She clerked for Judge Irving L. Goldberg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit (1975-76) and for Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court (1976-77). After a brief stint at the Legal Adviser’s Office of the U.S. Department of State, and a few years in private practice, she joined the law faculty of the University of Chicago. She was the first woman there to be awarded a named chair. From 1993 to 1995 she was the Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. In 1995, she was appointed by President Clinton to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, where she served as Chief Judge from 2013 to 2020. She retired from the Court on April 30, 2024. Judge Wood is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and chaired its Council for many years. She is an emerita member of the ALI’s Council, and since May 1, 2023, has been its Director (the first woman to serve in that role in its 100-year history). She continues to teach at the University of Chicago Law School, and in her spare time she plays the oboe in the Chicago Bar Association Symphony Orchestra. She and her husband, Dr. Robert L. Sufit, have three children apiece and eight grandchildren.