She skipped high school, entered college at 14, and transferred to Yale where her older sister Annette was a student. She earned a degree in Political Science there in 1974 at 18, and her Juris Doctor in 1976 from the University of California, Hastings College of Law. At 21, she joined the staff of then U.S. Senator Joe Biden's Senate Judiciary Committee. In 2006 she earned her Ph.D. in History with a focus on Human Rights and United States Foreign Policy from the University of Southern Denmark.