[2] Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, Hall received an Artium Baccalaureus degree from Mount Holyoke College in 1970.

Then, she landed a position as a trial attorney in the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division, which she held until 1979.

Hall was nominated by President Bill Clinton on June 5, 1997, to a seat vacated by T. F. Gilroy Daly.

[3] She presided over the sentencing of former nurse Donna Monticone, who stole hundreds of vials of fentanyl from patients at the Yale Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Lab, where she worked.

[5] Despite numerous letters from victims detailing the immense physical and psychological pain Monticone caused, and despite sentencing guidelines that called for 4 to 5 years in prison, Hall only sentenced Monticone to four nonconsecutive weekends in prison.