She served as state secretary for the Minister of Justice and Police from 1996 to 1997 and as president of the Norwegian Bar Association from 2008 to 2012.

[1] She served as state secretary for the Minister of Justice and Police from 1996 to 1997, in the Labour Party government of Thorbjørn Jagland.

[2] On 20 February 2017 she became the acting chairman of the committee, following the death of Kaci Kullmann Five.

[6] Reiss-Andersen has criticized Erna Solberg over her silence on Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo when he was dying in prison in China and the Norwegian government refused to say whether it supported the European Union's demand that Liu be released; Reiss-Andersen described Solberg and her right-wing government's attitude as "embarrassing.

[1] Her paternal grandfather was Gunnar Reiss-Andersen, who wrote lyric poetry.