Who

The chief judge of the U.S District Court for the Southern District of New York, Wood is a respected jurist, near-nominee for Attorney General, and sometime home-wrecker.

Backstory

The daughter of an Army speechwriter, Wood spent her childhood moving from army base to army base before attending Connecticut College and then moving to London. (While a student at the London School of Economics she worked briefly as a bunny at London's Playboy Club, figuring it would be an easy way to earn money on the side.) Following law school and a stint at the Office of Economic Opportunity, in 1971 Wood joined the firm of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Leiby & MacRae, where she focused on antitrust litigation. She became partner at LeBoeuf in 1978, and stayed there for another decade, leaving in 1988 after President Reagan appointed her a federal district judge. Over the years she delivered rulings in a variety of high-profile trials, including that of junk bond king Michael Milken—she sentenced him to prison and forced him to pay millions in fines—as well as those of shoe mogul Steve Madden and Wall Street executive James McDermott. After nearly landing the job of Attorney General during the first term of the Clinton administration, she remained on the bench and became chief judge of the Southern District of New York in 2006, succeeding Michael Mukasey.

For the record

Wood's first name—Kimba—comes from a small town in southern Australia.

Drama

In 1993, Clinton was preparing to nominate her for Attorney General when Wood withdrew her candidacy after confessing that she'd hired an illegal immigrant as a babysitter in 1986. Although it wasn't illegal (at the time, that is), the "Nannygate" scandal spoiled her spotless record and derailed her chances at landing the top spot. It also set a precedent: The very same issue would later forced Zoe Baird and Linda Chavez to withdraw their names from cabinet nominations, too. Former police commissioner Bernie Kerik used the excuse to back out of a homeland security chief nomination, although it later turned out he was hiding much more.

Personal

After a long marriage to Time columnist Michael Kramer, Wood divorced him in the mid '90s. She then started seeing banker Frank Richardson III who, inconveniently, was married at the time. Richardson's wife, socialite Nancy Richardson, wasn't terribly amused when she discovered her husband's gushy diary, and during the high-profile divorce in 1995, the spurned ex-wife made the diary public. (A sample passage: "[I'm] wild, wild, wild about her. Overwhelmed. No sense of reserve. Intoxicated by her body.")

Habitat

Wood and Richardson—who is estimated to be worth $175 million—live in a co-op on the Upper East Side. Their neighbors in their building include Richard Meier and Pauline Pitt.

---