Comments:
After USC, I went off to Pembroke College in Brown University. Started out as a pre-med, but when that didn't work out too well, I majored in American Civilization. (When I told my father I had switched from biology to American civilization, he said, "Well, we sent you up there to get you civilized.") Then the University of Virginia School of Law, from which I graduated in 1969. There were 6 women in my law school class of 250.
I started at the Federal Trade Commission in 1969, including a stint as attorney-adviser to Chairman Miles W. Kirkpatrick and one in 1972 as the first woman to be an Assistant Bureau Director.
Then I went off to the private practice of law, at Weil, Gotshal & Manges in New York. I had met the WGM people when, while at the FTC, I sued one of their clients, Topper Toys (remember Johnny Lightning?) for false advertising. I became the first woman partner at WGM in 1976, and shortly thereafter moved to Washington, DC to open a Washington office for the firm.
Next, I became the chief counsel of FDA (another first as a woman) and served from 1980-1981. That was a great job, dealing with issues such as whether tampons caused toxic shock and if so what to do about it, and whether to provide information about prescription drugs directly to consumers. Then back to WGM, when Jimmy Carter lost the election.
In 1994,I co-founded a "boutique" law firm, Buc & Beardsley, which was my professional home until 2011, when we closed our firm and I retired.
Brown University has been the focus of much of my volunteer work. I served as a Corporation trustee and a Corporation fellow for more than 20 years, and also worked to support Brown's Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women. Today I serve as chair of the Pembroke Center Associate Council, and also on a committee to plan Brown's 250th anniversary celebration. I was deeply honored to receive a Brown honorary degree in 1994.
