She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago and her law degree from the University of Michigan. She lives in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago and commutes to work on the Metra train, then walks across the Loop to her office. She also is a recreational walker, jogger and bicyclist, and her husband is an avid bicyclist. She and her husband raised three children, all of whom walked to school from nursery school through high school. Between college and professional school, she and her husband served in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic.