Barbara Bader Aldave earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry, with distinction, from Stanford University in 1960, and her doctor of jurisprudence degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1966. After practicing law for several years, she joined the faculty of the University Of Oregon School Of Law in 1970. She subsequently taught at the law schools of the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Texas, Northeastern University, Boston College, and Cornell University. From 1989 through 1998, she served as the Dean of St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas. In the fall of 2000, she returned to the University of Oregon , where she held the Loran L. Stewart Chair in Corporate Law and directed the Center for Law and Entrepreneurship.
