Judge Pillard has served on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since December 2013. She graduated with high honors from Yale College in 1983 and Harvard Law School in 1987. Following graduation, she served as a law clerk to Judge Louis H. Pollak, and held the Marvin M. Karpatkin fellowship at the American Civil Liberties Union. Pillard worked for several years as Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc., and then in the United States Department of Justice as an Assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States. Georgetown Law hired Pillard onto the tenure track in 1997. On a leave from Georgetown Law, she served again in the Justice Department from 1998 to 2000, as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel. Pillard returned to Georgetown and remained a full faculty member until she relinquished her tenure upon her appointment to the bench. Pillard was an active member of the Georgetown Law Supreme Court Institute (SCI) from its founding in 2003, becoming SCI Faculty Co-Director in 2011. She also served from 2008 to 2009 as inaugural Academic Co-Director and Professor at the Center for Transnational Legal Studies (CTLS)—a London-based, Georgetown-led law study program conducted in collaboration with law schools from many different countries. Pillard was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars during 2012-2013. She continues to teach part time and values her connection to the Georgetown Law community.