About Harlington Wood, Jr.
Harlington Wood, Jr., will tell you that he is "a lawyer." Simply stated, he is that. He graduated from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1948, and, after passing the Bar, he went into private practice in Springfield, Illinois, with his father. Ten years later he received the first of four Presidential appointments. In 1958 he was appointed United States Attorney for the southern district of Illinois by President Eisenhower. He returned to private practice in 1961. In 1969 he was named Director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys in the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. In 1972 he was appointed Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the Department of Justice by President Nixon.
During his time in the Department of Justice he was given many special assignments specifically dealing with issues of peacekeeping in locations around the United States: Wounded Knee; Culebra; Alcatraz; anti-war demonstrations in Washington, D.C.; and national political nominating conventions in Miami.
Wood was appointed Judge of the United States District Court, Southern District of Illinois, by President Nixon in 1973. He served in that position until President Ford appointed him Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in 1976. He has served on U. S. Judicial Conference Committees dealing with Bankruptcy Legislation, Court Administration, Automation, and Long Range Planning for the Federal Judiciary. He has received U.S. State Department and U.S. Information Agency assignments to Mexico, Russia, and Romania. Judge Wood has been an adjunct professor at University of Illinois College of Law and a distinguished visiting professor at St. Louis University School of Law.
Judge Wood is an inveterate world traveler, an accomplished horseman, and a photographer whose photographs reveal an artistic appreciation for the beauty found in the ordinary.