[6] Wood lived in Europe during her youth, where her father was stationed in several places, and she received early education at the Sorbonne.

After relocating to New York City in 1971, Wood returned to private practice from 1971 to 1988, working as an antitrust law expert at the firm of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Leiby & MacRae.

[3] In the Nannygate matter of 1993, Wood was Bill Clinton's second unsuccessful choice for United States Attorney General.

[12] One of Wood's notable decisions was sentencing Michael Milken, known as "The Junk Bond King", in 1990 to ten years in prison.

[14] In 1998, Wood presided over the case of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem v. Christie's, Inc., in which the ownership of the Archimedes Palimpsest was disputed.

On July 8, 2010, Wood was the presiding judge over the US case against ten alleged Russian 'illegals' involved in the Illegals Program.

[18] A trial investigating the damages necessary to compensate the affected record labels was held in 2011 and ended in a negotiated settlement.

[19] On November 19, 2010, Wood received attention in connection with a letter to the court from Bennet M. Epstein, an attorney, who asked for time off from a trial to attend his then-unborn grandson's bris, if the baby proved to be a boy.

"[20] In 2016, Wood presided over the case against Dean Skelos, Republican majority leader of the New York State Senate, who was accused of federal corruption charges.

[21] In April 2018, Wood was assigned to preside over motions arising out of the search pursuant to warrant of the home and office of Michael Cohen, a personal attorney for Donald Trump.