Carla Anderson Hills Essay

Carla Anderson Hills was a lawyer as well as a public official serving in the international and domestic departments under the command of two United States Presidents. Hills attended college at two well-known schools. She worked very hard to obtain her role as a public official and a lawyer. Carla Hills was born on January 3, 1934, in Los Angeles, California (CA) to Carl and Edith Anderson. She was born into a very wealthy family, and grew up in Beverly Hills, CA where she attended private schools throughout her childhood. After high school, Hills spent a year at St. Hilda’s College, Oxford University and then graduated from Stanford University in 1955 where she received her bachelor’s degree. Carla Hills had dreamed of being a lawyer since she was a little girl, even though her dad wanted her to be apart of his business. In 1955, Hills went to Yale Law School. While she was going to college, Carla Hills had to maintain a job to pay for tuition. She worked as a bank teller and a bookkeeper until her father agreed to help fund her college. She graduated from Yale in 1958 in the top of her class. (Carla Anderson Hills Facts, np) After earning her degree at Yale, Hills had a very hard time finding a job because she was a female. In 1958, Carla Anderson married
Roderick M. Hills. The two later joined forces with other lawyers to create the Munger, Tolles, Hills, and Rickershauser law firm in 1962.Hills was admitted into the California Bar in 1959 where she spent two years as the assistant United States attorney. Carla and Roderick worked together in their law firm for twelve years. While working with her husband she earned experience in two types of cases, antitrust and security. Hills published three books on the cases she specialized in. She was named President Los Angeles chapter of the Federal Bar Association in 1963. In 1965, Hills was named President of the National Association of Women Lawyers and she was admitted to the bar of the United States Supreme Court. (Carla Anderson Hills, American Lawyer, np) Hills became a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, teaching antitrust law in 1971.
Hills became in contact with government in 1973 after her husband declined a job as assistant secretary for President Richard Nixon’s secretary of defense, Elliot Richardson. Richardson was impressed with Carla Hills’ work and offered her the job as United States Assistant Attorney General heading the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. February 1975, President Richard Nixon suggested Hills as secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), making her the third woman to hold a cabinet position. She served as secretary of HUD from March 1975- January 1977. (Carla Anderson Hills Facts,
np) In 1978, during President Carter’s administration, Hills partnered with Latham and Watkins and opened a private practice law firm in Washington D.C. She worked at this law firm until 1986. While working at Latham, Watkins, and Hills, she served on the director's board for Chevron, IBM, and American Airlines, and she was also on the Trilateral Commission and the Sloan Commission on Government and Higher Education. Carla Hills held an advisor position at top schools including, Stanford Law School, Yale Law School, University of Southern California, Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School. (Carla Anderson Hills Facts, np) Hills left Latham, Watkins, and Hills and partnered with Weil, Gotshal, & Manges in 1986 where she stayed until 1989. President George Bush appointed Carla Anderson Hills as the United States Trade Representative in 1989. Her main goals as serving as U.S. Trade Representative was to break down Japanese trade barriers and to encourage the European community to dispose of farm subsidies because it was causing an undercut to American Farmers. (Carla Anderson Hills American Lawyer, np) In 1993, Carla Hills founded Hills & Company International Consultants where she worked as a public speaker. She also became a founder of the Forum for International Policy. Hill now serves on the boards for many enormous companies. (Carla Anderson Hills American Lawyer, np)