Professor Wildman writes extensively in the areas of social justice, race, gender and the law. Her book, Privilege Revealed: How Invisible Preference Undermines America, (with contributions by Margalynne Armstrong, Adrienne D. Davis, & Trina Grillo) won the 1997 Outstanding Book Award from the Gustavus Meyers Center for Human Rights. Wildman was the founding director of the Center for Social Justice at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) and was the Director of the Center for Social Justice and Public Service at Santa Clara University School of Law.

Prior to joining the Santa Clara University School of Law faculty, Professor Wildman taught for 25 years at the University of San Francisco School of Law, where she is a professor emerita. She has been a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Davis School of Law, Hastings College of the Law, Santa Clara University School of Law, and Stanford Law School. Before entering academia, she clerked for Judge Charles M. Merrill of the United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit and worked as a staff attorney for California Rural Legal Assistance.