An Ohio native, Boalt graduated from Amherst College in 1857
before going to Germany to study law and mining. With the outbreak of the Civil
War, he went back to Ohio for military service and was commissioned a First
Lieutenant in Company D of the 11th Ohio Cavalry. He later on also served with
the Union Signal Corps. After the war he went to Nevada in search of the
Comstock Lode. Admitted to the bar in 1867, he was appointed Judge of the Sixth
Judicial District of Nevada from 1869 until 1870. In 1871 he moved to San
Francisco where he joined Morris Estee to form the law firm of Estee &
Boalt, a partnership that lasted until 1879, and later practiced law in the firm
of Garber, Boalt & Bishop from 1889 until 1895. Following his demise, his
widow donated the funds for the construction of the University of California
Berkeley's law school building. Opened in 1911, it was firstly named the Boalt
Hall School of Law in his honor.
