Judge Mary Schroeder is a senior circuit judge on the 9th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. She received her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School 1965, one of six women in her class. Judge Schroeder practiced law with the Civil Division of the Department of Justice and the law firm Lewis & Roca before being appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals in 1975. She was nominated by Jimmy Carter to the 9th Circuit in 1979, and was the first woman to serve as its Chief Judge, from 2000 to 2007. She took senior status at the beginning of this year.