Senior United States District Judge Kimba Maureen Wood is currently assigned to the Southern District of New York. Over the course of her three-decade judicial career, she has gained notoriety for presiding over cases involving prominent figures such as “Junk Bond King” Michael Milken, New York State Senate Republican majority leader Dean Skelos, and Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen. Wood, a native of Washington, spent her formative years in Europe. After earning a bachelor’s degree in government, she pursued a master’s degree in political theory and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1969 with a Juris Doctor. Wood began her tenure in the American justice system as a Washington, D.C.-based private practitioner. She briefly left private practice to serve at the Office of Economic Opportunity before resuming private practice in New York. In 1987, she was appointed to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York by President Ronald Reagan. In 2006, she was appointed Chief Judge, and in 2009, she was elevated to Senior Judge. At the advent of the Nannygate controversy, Wood’s nomination for US Attorney General was hastily withdrawn by the administration of Bill Clinton.
Youth and Early Life
Kimba Wood was born in Port Townsend, Washington, on January 21, 1944. Her mother named her after a South Australian town she discovered in an atlas. Her father was a career officer who served as a speechwriter in the United States Army. Due to the profession of her father, she spent her adolescence traveling throughout Europe. While in Paris, France, with her family, she attended the Sorbonne.
After graduating from secondary school, she enrolled at Connecticut College to pursue a bachelor’s degree in government and graduated with honors in 1965. In 1966, she graduated with a Master of Science in political theory from the London School of Economics.
During this time, Wood developed an interest in becoming a Playboy maid and even trained for five days. She departed, however, before joining a club. She returned to the United States to attend Harvard Law School, where she was one of fewer than twenty female students. In 1969, she earned a Juris Doctor degree.
Kimba Wood’s Career
Kimba Wood began her legal career as a private practitioner in Washington, D.C., working for Steptoe & Johnson. She was the only female attorney on their team. She departed the private sector for the Office of Economic Opportunity in 1970.
In 1971, she resigned from her position at the Office of Economic Opportunity and transferred back to the private sector in New York City. She was the antitrust law expert at LeBoeuf, Lamb, Leiby & MacRae from 1971 to 1988.
In 1978, after ascending through the male-dominated realm of antitrust law, she became a partner at the firm. Throughout the succeeding decade, her renown expanded.
In 1987, New York Republican Senator Al D’Amato recommended her to US President Ronald Reagan as a potential candidate for a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. President Reagan nominated her for the position on December 18, 1987, which had previously been held by Judge Constance Baker Motley. The United States Senate unanimously approved her nomination on April 19, 1988.
Kimba Wood was commissioned on April 20, 1988, and began her responsibilities on July 28. She was a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 2006 to 2007. In 2006, she became the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and three years later, she was elevated to the position of Senior Judge.
After being elected president of the United States in January 1993, Bill Clinton nominated corporate attorney Zo Baird for the position of attorney general. As it was disclosed that she and her husband had hired two undocumented immigrants from Peru to serve as their young child’s nanny and chauffeur, they effectively violated federal law. In addition, they had not paid the required social security levies for their employees.
While Clinton and his administration did not consider it a serious matter, the “Nannygate” scandal, as it became known, sparked a political tempest, and Baird’s nomination was ultimately withdrawn. Clinton’s second candidate was Wood. Clinton’s preference, however, was leaked to the press, and within a day it was revealed that she, too, had employed an undocumented immigrant to care for her son.
Although, unlike Baird, Wood had legally employed her caregiver and paid social security taxes, the revelation was sufficient to prompt the immediate withdrawal of her nomination. White House officials told reporters that the administration was furious with Wood for not disclosing the information to the president or other administration members, but Wood maintains that she never intentionally misled the White House. Ultimately, Janet Reno was chosen for the position.
Kimba’s Major Cases
In 1990, “Junk Bond King” Michael Milken was sentenced to ten years in prison by Kimba Wood. A year later, the sentence was reduced to two years in prison and three years of probation due to Milken’s cooperation with other investigations, as requested by the prosecutors.
On July 8, 2010, she accepted the guilty pleas of ten “illegal” Russian defendants implicated in the illegal program and sentenced them all to the amount of time they had already served. Later, the ten individuals were returned to Russia in exchange for four American prisoners confined in Russia.
In 2016, she presided over the case against Dean Skelos, the Republican majority leader of the New York State Senate. Skelos was sentenced to five years in prison and his son, Adam, was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for federal corruption charges. However, the convictions were subsequently overturned by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
In April 2018, Wood consented to preside over the motions that arose after the warrantless search of the home and office of Michael Cohen, who served as the personal attorney of current US President Donald Trump until May 2018 when he was fired.
Kimba’s Personal Life
Kimba Wood is a three-time married woman. Robert Lovejoy, a fellow attorney, and partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell, was her first spouse. They wed in 1970, after which she adopted the surname, Lovejoy, becoming Kimba Wood Lovejoy. They split up in 1982. She married Michael Kramer, a political columnist for Time magazine, in the same year that her first marriage ended. Ben was born in 1986 after she gave birth to him. This relationship also resulted in divorce.
Wood began an ardent relationship with her former Harvard classmate Frank E. Richardson II, who was married at the time, shortly after her divorce from Kramer. During Richardson’s highly publicized divorce proceedings, Wood became a correspondent, and Richardson’s diary entries discussing their relationship were made public. In 1999, after his divorce was finalized, they wed.
Estimated Net Worth
The estimated net worth of Kimba Wood is $2,000,000, with primary income coming from the judge and counsel. We lack sufficient evidence of Kimba Wood’s automobiles and way of life.
Trivia
Wood officiated the nuptials of progressive financier George Soros and educator Tamiko Bolton.