Biography

Shirley Mount Hufstedler was born in 1925 in Denver, Colorado. She received her Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of New Mexico in 1945, and her Bachelor of Law degree from Stanford University in 1949. She married Seth M. Hufstedler in 1949. Seth Hufstedler, a distinguished graduate of Stanford Law School, is a former President of the American Bar Foundation, the Los Angeles County Bar Association and the State Bar of California. Their son, Steven Hufstedler, is a medical doctor. Dr. and Mrs. Steven Hufstedler have four children.

From 1950 to 1960, Mrs. Hufstedler was in the private practice of law in Los Angeles. From 1960 to 1961, she served as Special Legal Consultant to the Attorney General of California in the complex Colorado River litigation before the United States Supreme Court. In 1961, she was appointed Judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, a position to which she was elected in 1962. In 1966, she was appointed Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal. President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed her Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in September, 1968. She served in that capacity for eleven years before President Jimmy Carter appointed her United States Secretary of Education. On January 20, 1981, Mrs. Hufstedler returned to private life, teaching and practicing law. She was a visiting professor at the University of California at Irvine, the University of Iowa, and the University of Vermont in 1981 and Phleger Professor of Law, Stanford Law School, for the Spring Semester 1982; Regent's Lecturer, University of California at Santa Cruz 1983; Robert Morse Chair lecturer, University of Oregon 1984; Visiting Fellow St. Catherine's College, Oxford, England, 1996. She was a partner in the firm Hufstedler & Kaus, now merged into Morrison & Foerster, where she is senior counsel. She is on the Board of Directors of Harman International Industries, emeritus director of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Salzburg Seminar. She is a trustee of the California Institute of Technology.

She has earlier served on the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, the Institute for Judicial Administration, Natural Resources Defense Council, Council of the American Law Institute, and the governing boards or visiting committees of the United States Military Academy (West Point), Institute for Civil Justice, Harvard Law School, Stanford Law School, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, the University of Southern California Law Center; the Institute for Court Management, the Constitutional Rights Foundation, the Advisory Council for Appellate Justice, American Judicature Society, Center for National Policy and Occidental College. She is an emeritus director of Hewlett Packard Company and U S West, Inc. She was Chairman of the United States Commission on Immigration Reform (1996-97).

She has been a faculty member of the Appellate Judges Seminars for the Institute of Judicial Administration, and chair of the law faculty of the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies in Austria. She has also been a guest lecturer in England, France, Bulgaria, Israel, Jordan, Iran, India, Nepal, Malaysia and Sweden. She was a member of a three-person delegation from the United States State Department and the American Bar Association to negotiate agreements to exchange legal scholars and judges between the United States and the Soviet Union, Poland and Hungary. She was a delegate from the Lawyers Alliance for Nuclear Arms Control with Erwin Griswald (former Solicitor General of the United States and Dean of the Harvard Law School) negotiating nuclear arms agreements with the Soviet Union for 9 years.

Mrs. Hufstedler has written numerous articles for professional journals, newspapers and magazines in the fields of law, education, government, national and international affairs. She is the recipient of many honorary doctorate degrees from universities and colleges, including: the Claremont University Center, Columbia University, Georgetown University, Gonzaga University, Hood College, Mount Holyoke College, University of Michigan, University of New Mexico, Occidental College, University of the Pacific, University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University, University of Southern California, Smith College, Syracuse University, Tufts University, Tulane University, University of Wyoming, and Yale University.

Among her other awards and honors are the Order of the Coif; the Marshall-Wythe Medal (College of William and Mary); St. Thomas More Medal (Loyola Law School); Golden Plate Award (American Academy of Achievement); Woman of the Year Award (Los Angeles Times); Woman of the Year Award (Ladies Home Journal); University of California at Los Angeles Medal; Herbert O. Harley Award (American Judicature Society); Earl Warren Medal (University of Judaism); Louis D. Brandeis Medal (University of Louisville); Shattuck-Price Memorial Award (Los Angeles County Bar Association), Stanford Law School Award of Merit, American Bar Association's 1995 gold medal, Margaret Brent Award (ABA Commission on Women in the Legal Profession), and the Learned Hand Award.

Among her memberships are the American Bar Association, American Law Institute, American Judicature Society, Association of the Bar of the City of New York (honorary), Pacific Council, International Association of Women Lawyers, Institute for Judicial Administration, Los Angeles Bar Association, National Association of Women Lawyers, State Bar of California, Town Hall, Federal Bar Association and Women Lawyers Association. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

She is an enthusiastic grandmother, gardener, cook, and mountaineer. She also takes an active interest in international affairs, politics, music, books, the performing arts and world travel.

Related Articles:

Shirley M. Hufstedler, A.B.A.: Previous Margaret Brent Women Law. Achievement Award Recipients, https://perma.cc/FDA9-VHFF.

Janet Cooper Alexander, Shirley Mount Hufstedler, Pioneer, Stanford Lawyer (June 14, 2018), https://law.stanford.edu/stanford-lawyer/articles/shirley-mount-hufstedler-pioneer/ [https://perma.cc/LR44-RGG8].

Sam Roberts, Shirley Hufstedler, Judge and Cabinet’s First Education Secretary, Dies at 90, The New York Times (Mar. 31, 2016), https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/01/us/shirley-hufstedler-pioneering-judge-and-first-cabinet-level-education-secretary-is-dead-at-90.html [https://perma.cc/3VVC-6ZBZ].

Emily Langer, Shirley Hufstedler, first secretary of the newly created Education Dept., dies at 90, The Washington Post (Mar. 31, 2016), https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/shirley-hufstedler-first-secretary-of-the-newly-created-education-dept-dies-at-90/2016/03/31/752ac8a0-f74f-11e5-8b23-538270a1ca31_story.html?utm_term=.4cbb313fe10f [https://perma.cc/UTU5-2HKR].