LeBoeuf , Lamb , Leiby & MacRae
Who did Kimba Wood work for from 1971 to 1988?
Kimba Wood Kimba Maureen Wood ( born January 21 , 1944 ) is a Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York . Wood has presided over many high-profile cases involving such figures as Junk Bond King Michael Milken , Republican majority leader of the New York State Senate Dean Skelos , and Donald Trumps personal attorney , Michael Cohen . Early life and education . Wood was born in Port Townsend , Washington . Wood was named for the small town of Kimba , South Australia , which her mother saw in an atlas . Her father was a career officer and speechwriter in the United States Army . Wood lived in Europe during her youth , where her father was stationed in several places , and she received early education at the Sorbonne . In 1965 , Wood graduated cum laude from Connecticut College with a bachelors degree in government . In 1966 , she received a Master of Science in political theory from the London School of Economics . While in London , she spent five days training as a Playboy bunny , but quit before beginning to work at a club . She then earned a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1969 , where there were fewer than twenty women in her class . Career . From 1969 to 1970 , Wood was in private practice in Washington , D.C. , working at Steptoe & Johnson where she was the only female attorney . From 1970 to 1971 , she worked at the Office of Economic Opportunity . After relocating to New York City in 1971 , Wood returned to private practice from 1971 to 1988 , working as an antitrust law expert at the firm of LeBoeuf , Lamb , Leiby & MacRae . She became one of the first women to break into the male-dominated world of antitrust law , and became partner at LeBoeuf in 1978 . Federal judicial service . On December 18 , 1987 , based upon a recommendation from Senator Al DAmato , Wood was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York vacated by Judge Constance Baker Motley . Wood was confirmed by a unanimous United States Senate on April 19 , 1988 , and received her commission on April 20 , 1988 . She entered on duty on July 28 , 1988 . Wood was a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 2006 to 2007 . She served as Chief Judge from 2006 to 2009 and assumed senior status on June 1 , 2009 . Proposed nomination as Attorney General . In the Nannygate matter of 1993 , Wood was Bill Clintons second unsuccessful choice for United States Attorney General . Like Clintons previous nominee , Zoë Baird , Wood had hired an undocumented immigrant as a nanny , but unlike Baird , she had paid the required taxes on the employee . Wood employed the undocumented immigrant at a time when it was legal to do so , before the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 made the hiring of undocumented immigrants unlawful . The threat of a repetition of the same controversy nevertheless led to the hasty withdrawal of Wood from consideration . Janet Reno was later nominated and confirmed for the post . White House officials said they were angry at Wood because she had not told Clinton and other officials about the nanny , even when she had been directly asked . In her statement , however , Wood said she had not misled the White House . Notable cases . One of Woods notable decisions was sentencing Michael Milken , known as The Junk Bond King , in 1990 to ten years in prison . In 1991 , Milkens sentence was reduced to two years imprisonment and three years probation at the request of prosecutors , to reward his cooperation in other investigations . In 1998 , Wood presided over the case of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem v . Christies , Inc. , in which the ownership of the Archimedes Palimpsest was disputed . Wood also later presided over Leonard v . Pepsico , Inc. , 88 F . Supp 2d 116 ( S.D.N.Y . 1996 ) , more widely known as the Pepsi Points Case . On July 8 , 2010 , Wood was the presiding judge over the US case against ten alleged Russian illegals involved in the Illegals Program . She accepted the defendants guilty pleas and sentenced all ten to time served . The ten were then deported and exchanged for four prisoners previously held in Russia . On October 26 , 2010 , Wood issued an injunction in Arista Records LLC v . Lime Group LLC , forcing LimeWire to disable the searching , downloading , uploading , file trading and/or file distribution functionality , and/or all functionality of its software . A trial investigating the damages necessary to compensate the affected record labels was held in 2011 and ended in a negotiated settlement . On November 19 , 2010 , Wood received attention in connection with a letter to the court from Bennet M . Epstein , an attorney , who asked for time off from a trial to attend his then-unborn grandsons bris , if the baby proved to be a boy . In response , Wood wrote that Epstein would be permitted to attend the bris , but that if a daughter is born , there will be a public celebration in court , with readings from poetry celebrating girls and women . In 2016 , Wood presided over the case against Dean Skelos , Republican majority leader of the New York State Senate , who was accused of federal corruption charges . In April 2018 , Wood was assigned to preside over motions arising out of the search pursuant to warrant of the home and office of Michael Cohen , a personal attorney for Donald Trump . Personal life . In 1970 , Wood married Robert Lovejoy , a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell . She went by the name Kimba Wood Lovejoy from 1970 to 1982 , until the time of their divorce . In 1982 , Wood married Time magazine political columnist Michael Kramer . They had a son , Ben , in 1986 . The marriage ended in divorce . After separating from Kramer , Wood and former Harvard Law School classmate Frank E . Richardson II began dating . In 1995 , Wood was named as a co-respondent in Richardsons high-profile divorce battle , where Richardsons diaries describing his relationship with Wood were made public . In 1999 , Wood married Richardson . Leadership roles . - 2000–2001 : Amherst College Board of Trustees - Harvard Law School Association of New York City , President ( one-year term ) External links . - Hon . Kimba M . Wood , United States District Judge at United States District Court for the Southern District of New York - Kimba M . Wood at C-SPAN