tors at Santa Clara Law. The professors’ intellect, not their gender, Notzon stressed, endeared them to her. “They were some of the more significant people to me not just because they’re women, but because they were great lawyers.” Although she has never felt the need for female role models, Notzon says that an informal women’s mentorship program in the Genentech legal department has been an unexpected benefit of joining the biotechnology developer and manufacturing giant. Despite the prevalence of men in the sciences and patent law, she says, Genentech employs a significant number of female attorneys who support each other professionally, including several Santa Clara Law alumnae. In this female-friendly environment Notzon has flourished, and she recently earned a promotion to practice group leader and associate director of law. The new role requires Notzon to lead a team of attorneys, while continuing to advise senior sales and marketing clients, she says. While Genentech’s open support of its female employees has created an ideal atmosphere for Notzon, she acknowledges that not all women lawyers are as fortunate to practice in such a progressive workplace: “I haven’t experienced sexism personally, but I know that people do. I think it depends on where you are, what company you’re with, and what their tolerance is.” Allison Hendrix J.D. ’08 Associate, Platform Operations, Facebook
I
f she had had a female attorney role model growing up, says Allison Hendrix, she might have attended law school earlier. “I didn’t have any lawyers in the family, so it seemed like something that was out of reach.” Within months of graduating from a paralegal training program and entering the workforce, however, she changed her mind. “I was drafting motions and doing all sorts of things that lawyers do. I realized I could be a lawyer.”
Hendrix carefully selected the law school she would attend. “I chose Santa Clara for its status and also its focus on intellectual property. I wanted to go to the best school and Santa Clara was the best one.” At Santa Clara Law, Hendrix excelled in her classes and availed herself of the school’s many opportunities to study intellectual property. In her privacy rights seminar professor, Hendrix found her female attorney role model. “My biggest legal mentor was Dorothy Glancy,” she says. “She noticed some of my strengths and really tried to work with me.” Despite a flailing job market, shortly after graduation Hendrix landed a position at the social networking Web site phenomenon, Facebook. “What I learned in Professor Glancy’s privacy class carries over here [at Facebook],” says Hendrix. As part of Facebook’s legal staff, her job is to protect Facebook members by creating and promoting policies for using Facebook Platform, tools that enable third-party applications and Web sites to access content on behalf of Facebook users. “It’s about making sure that developers don’t disregard or circumvent users’ privacy settings,” she says. Although intellectual property is largely a male-dominated practice, among the Facebook management Hendrix found a number of female legal mentors and role models, including her immediate supervisor, Robyn Reiss, and Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg. Just as her lack of acquaintance with female lawyers once discouraged Hendrix from becoming one, she says, Sandberg’s presence on the Facebook executive board has encouraged her to excel as an attorney. “She motivates me to want to take on more leadership roles. It’s great being at a company where one of the top officers is a female,” says Hendrix.
Santa Clara Law Enrollment Statistics Year
Female enrollments
Total enrollments
1959
1
111
1960
0
108
1961
7
117
1962
11
113
1963
8
126
1964
8
148
1965
7
173
1966
8
190
1967
13
234
1968
14
260
1969
16
288
1970
39
463
1971
66
640
1972
104
743
1973
127
802
1974
183
906
1975
212
864
1980
360
939
1985
365
841
1990
459
931
1995
535
902
2000
502
917
2005
472
966
2010
494
1048
(Source: SCU Office of Institutional Research)
| Asa P ittman ’ 0 9 is a frequent contributor to Santa Clara Law. Prior to law school, she worked as an editorial assistant at a magazine. While she has written on many topics, she especially enjoyed working on this article. “It was a pleasure interviewing the alumnae of Santa Clara Law. Everyone seemed to have fond memories of their law school days, and, to my surprise, candid commentary about the challenges of being a female attorney in a traditionally male-dominated profession. I am grateful for the opportunity to meet each of these outstanding women.”
fall 2010 | santa clara law 17