Photo of Janet Wood Reno

Janet Wood Reno

1938 - 2016
Law
USA USA

Personal Information

Born: 1938

Died: 2016

Country of Birth: USA

Nationality: USA

Ethnicity: White

Education

Cornell University BS Chemistry 1960; Harvard Law School LLB 1963

Professional Life

Field of Study: Law

Institution/Corporation: None found

Degrees & Memberships: Member: Cornell Women's Self-Government Association; American Bar Association; Innocence Project; Florida Prosecuting Attorney's Association;

Awards & Achievements

Awards: 1993 named 1 of the Women of the Year by Glamour Magazine; 2000 National Women's Hall of Fame; 2008 Professionalism Award, Council on Litigation Management; 2009, Justice Award, American Judicature Society; 1981 Herbert Harley Award, American Judicature society; 1983, Public Administrator of the Year, American Society for Public Administration; 1990 Medal of Honor Award, Florida Bar Association

Achievements: 78th US Attorney General & 1st female to hold the position; 1978 1st female state attorney in Florida; founding member of the Innocence Project (2004)

1st female Attorney General (1993-2001)

Established 1st Drug Court in the US in Florida

Pioneered the "Miami Method," a technique for eliciting intimate details from young child abuse victims & inspired the passage of a law allowing them to testify by CCTV

Her mother wrote a weekly home improvement column for the Miami News under a male pseudonym

As a child helped her family churn butter which they sold to make ends meet

When she was 8 the family moved to a home on 21 acres near the Everglades that was completely built by her mother; some of the property was later sold to pay for the higher education of the 4 children

After completing middle school in 1951, she was sent to live with an uncle who was a military judge in Germany for 1 year; travelled in Europe during school breaks