The Hon. Mary M. Schroeder

Mary M. Schroeder has served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit since 1979, and was its Chief Judge from December 2000 to 2007, the first woman to hold that position. Prior to that, she served as a judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals from 1975 to 1979, and formerly she was a partner in the law firm of Lewis and Roca. She also taught at the Arizona State University Law School.

Judge Schroeder served as a trial attorney in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice from 1965 until 1969, when she moved to Arizona and clerked for Judge Jesse Udall of the Arizona Supreme Court. President of the National Association of Women Judges from 1998 to 1999, she received the American Bar Association’s Margaret Brent Award in 2001.

Judge Schroeder was elected to the ALI in 1974 and was elected to the Council in 1993. She serves as an Adviser on the Principles of Government Ethics project and the Restatement Fourth, The Law of Consumer Contracts project. She is also on the Members Consultative Groups for the Restatement Fourth, Foreign Relations Law of the United States project and the Model Penal Code: Sentencing project. She previously served as Chair of the ALI's Awards Committee and was an Adviser on the Restatement Third, Agency project.

EDUCATION: Swathmore College, B.A.; University of Chicago Law School, J.D.