Born on July 21, 1938 in Miami, Florida, Janet Reno made history when she became the first woman Attorney General of the United States. She was nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1993 and in 1997 was appointed to the same office.

Reno attended Coral Gables High School, a public school in Dade County, Florida. Her degree in Chemistry was courtesy of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Reno then went to Harvard Law School where she belonged to a class of over 500 students. She received her law degree in 1963.

After graduating from Cornell, Janet Reno found it difficult to land a job in the field of law because she was a woman. Her career took off when in 1971 she became staff director of the Judiciary Committee of Florida’s House of Representatives. She was instrumental in helping revise Florida’s court system. In 1973, Reno took a position at Dade County State’s Attorney’s office but left three years later, in 1976, to go into private practice.

Several years later, in 1978, Reno became the State’s Attorney General and was even re-elected four times.

Acknowledged as the 2nd longest serving Attorney General, Reno is notable for her works which helped change the juvenile justice system. She also helped seek child support payments from delinquent fathers and was responsible for establishing the Miami Drug Court.

One of Reno’s most celebrated and controversial cases was that of 14-year old Bobby Fijnje, who was accused and then acquitted of satanic ritual abuse. While she was at the Department of Justice, Reno supervised some of the most important incidents in American history including the capture and conviction of Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski, the capture and conviction of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols for the Oklahoma City bombing, and the highly complex case of six-year old Elian Gonzalez.

In 1995, Reno announced to the American public that she had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. After she retired from active law and public service practice, Reno began going around the U.S. giving speeches related to the criminal justice system. She also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the non-profit organization Innocence Project.

In 1997, Janet Reno received the Women’s International Center’s Living Legacy Award.