Kim Anita McLane Wardlaw (born 1954) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit since 1998. She is the first Hispanic American woman to be appointed to a federal appeals court. Wardlaw was considered as a possible candidate to be nominated by Barack Obama to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Career output and lasting influence
Opinions attributed per year · peak 8/year
Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 330/year
California Central District Court · 1995–1998Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals · 1998–
Both charts share the same year axis. Opinion counts include only opinions in our corpus attributed to this judge so far — a year at zero can mean an attribution gap, not judicial silence. Influence typically outlasts the career: citations keep climbing after the last opinion.
- Gender
- Female
- Race
- Hispanic
Prior employment
- Private practice, Los Angeles, California1980–1995
- Justice Team I, Clinton-Gore Presidential Transition TeamMember · 1992–1993
- Mayoral Transition Committee, Mayor-Elect Richard Riordan, Los Angeles, CaliforniaMember · 1993
Law clerk , Hon. William P. Gray · 1979–1980
Appointments
1998–present · Appointed by William J. Clinton (Democratic)- 1995–1998 · Appointed by William J. Clinton (Democratic)Term ended: Appointment to Another Judicial Position
Education
- University of California, Los Angeles, School of LawJ.D. · 1979
- University of California, Los AngelesA.B. · 1976