Hardy Cross Dillard earned his undergraduate degree from the U.S. Military Academy and his law degree from the University of Virginia where he was an editor of the Virginia Law Review. After graduation in 1927, he remained at the Law School as an Acting Professor for two years. He then spent a year practicing law in New York and a year as a Carnegie Endowment Fellow at the University of Paris before returning to teach law at Virginia as an acting Assistant Professor in 1931. In 1938, Dillard became a full Professor at the Law School, teaching contracts, jurisprudence, and the first class on international law. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II, which led to advisory positions at the National War College and the U.S. Air Force Academy. Through the 1960s, Dillard worked in support of the integration of Virginia's public schools. From 1963 to 1968, he served as Dean of the Law School. Dillard retired from the Virginia Law faculty in 1970 and took emeritus status. That same year he was appointed judge on the International Court of Justice at The Hague, where he served until 1979. Dillard died in 1982. A prize was created in his name to be awarded to the author of the best student note in a current volume of the Virginia Journal of International Law.