A moderate Republican official, Carla Anderson Hills (born 1934) served three presidents as lawyer, cabinet member, and US trade representative.

Carla Anderson Hills was born in Los Angeles on January 3, 1934, the daughter of Carl H. and Edith (Hume) Anderson. A tomboy nicknamed Butch, she grew up in affluence, living in Beverly Hills and attending private schools. Her father, a self-made millionaire, ran a lucrative building supply business. Under his tutelage Carla became a fierce competitor who excelled in sports. She captained the tennis team at Stanford, where she graduated magna cum laude in 1955, after spending a year abroad at St. Hilda's College, Oxford University.

Her desire to become a lawyer, which she claimed dated from grade school, clashed with her father's plans to bring her into the business. In 1955 she entered Yale Law School, working as a bank teller and bookkeeper to pay her tuition until her father relented...