Carla Anderson Hills

Carla Anderson Hills (born January 3, 1934) is an American lawyer and public figure. She served as United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Gerald Ford administration, and as U.S. Trade Representative. She was the first woman to serve as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

She was the third woman to serve as a Cabinet officer in a U.S. Presidential Administration.

Biography

Born in Los Angeles, she received her B.A. degree from Stanford University, after studying at Oxford University. She earned her LL.B. degree from Yale University Law School in 1958. Born Carla Anderson, she married Roderick M. Hills the same year.

Career

Mrs. Hills was admitted to the California Bar in 1959, and served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Los Angeles from 1959 to 1961. From 1962 to 1974, she was a partner at Munger, Tolles, Hills, and Rickershauser of Los Angeles. In 1972, she was an adjunct professor at UCLA.

An authority on federal practice and anti-trust law, Mrs. Hills wrote of Federal Civil Practice and Antitrust Advisor. She is a former president of the National Association of Women Lawyers.

She was an United States Assistant Attorney General heading the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice before being named HUD Secretary. She was first offered an appointment as assistant U.S. Attorney General by Elliot L. Richardson in 1973, but he resigned shortly thereafter during the Watergate scandal. The offer was renewed by his successor, William B. Saxbe, in 1974.

Hills' lack of relevant experience was somewhat controversial during the appointment hearings for her nomination to head the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.

From 1978 through 1989 she was again a practicing attorney, and was chairman of the Urban Institute from 1983 through 1988. Hills served as U.S. Trade Representative from 1989 to 1993 under President George Herbert Walker Bush. An advocate of free trade, she was the primary U.S. negotiator of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Since 1993 she has worked as a consultant and public speaker through Hills & Company International Consultants, which gives advice on investment, trade and risk issues abroad.

She was one of the founders of the Forum for International Policy, and she is on the Board of Directors of American International Group and Time Warner.

In 2008, Yale University granted her an honorary degree.

Affiliations

• Co-Chairman, Council on Foreign Relations
• Chair, National Committee on United States-China Relations
• Executive Committee member, Trilateral Commission
• Executive Committee member, Institute for International Economics (IIE), now the Peterson Institute
• Director, ChevronTexaco, since 1993.
• Director, American International Group, Inc.
• Director, Lucent Technologies
• Director, AOL Time Warner, Inc.
• Co-Chair, Inter-American Dialogue
• Trustee, Forum for International Policy
• US Board Member, International Crisis Group.
• Advisory Board Member, Partnership for a Secure America
• Counselor and Trustee, Center for Strategic and International Studies

References

External links

• Hills at about.com
• Author biography