Barbara Spector, ’78

Trial Attorney, 2003 Byrl Salsman Award winner

It doesn’t seem surprising that Barbara Spector ’78 was honored with the top award from the Santa Clara County Bar Association for contributions to the local community. Just look at the list of some of the bar groups she’s served on or headed: Committee on Women Lawyers, Fee Arbitration Committee, Board of Trustees, Civil Practices Committee, Executive Committee, Judiciary Committee, Lawyer Referral Service Panel, and the Task Force on Judicial Evaluations.

And that’s just scratching the surface of her community involvement. Spector is also a successful trial attorney, mediator, and arbitrator, and served the School of Law on its Board of Visitors from 1993 to 1998.

“The things that I have done throughout my career, for the bar association and for the community, I have done because I have enjoyed them,” she says.

For those achievements, she was honored with the bar association’s Byrl Salsman Award in 2003.

Spector was working for the Santa Clara County Commission on the Status of Women when she decided to enroll at SCU School of Law in 1975. She was a comments editor of the law review, and graduated magna cum laude.

Not surprisingly, Spector says she loves the law. “I love the challenge and the fact that every case is different,” she explains. “It’s always interesting.”

Spector’s Santa Clara-based litigation practice involves business, plaintiff’s personal injury and employment cases. Seven years out of law school, she won a case she tried before the California Supreme Court, Kendall v. Pestana (1985) 40 Cal.3d 488.

“I’m very proud of that,” she says. “I was very proud of the fact that I was a relatively new lawyer, and I’d never been before the California Supreme Court before.”

The court held that a commercial landlord cannot unreasonably deny the assignment of a tenant’s lease when the tenant is selling the business. It required a reasonableness standard in determining whether or not a landlord would consent to the assignment.

Spector, who has served as president of the Santa Clara County Trial Lawyers’ Association, also enjoys being a mediator.

“I like using the knowledge I’ve obtained as a trial attorney for 25 years to help the parties resolve their cases,” she says. “Because even though I’m a trial attorney, I really do think that people should try and resolve their cases… I find it very satisfying at the end of the day when the case is resolved.”

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Diane Northway, a friend for 30 years, describes Spector as a "well-rounded person” who’s warm and witty. “She’s a real Renaissance woman,” she says.

In between life as a litigator, mediator, and volunteer, Spector and her husband, Ira, make time for themselves. They spend one month every year in the same rented villa in France, near St. Tropez.

Spector and her husband have written a book about their adventures in the South of France called A Month of Sundays. The title, she explained, is because “Sunday is sort of a special day of the week for a lot of people. The month there became a month of Sundays.”

They’ve been selling the book since July through mailing and personal contacts, and plan to sell it on the Internet.

The pace of life is slower in the South of France, and Spector has learned from it.

“What I learned is that my career doesn’t have to be all-demanding and all-encompassing, that I can think and do other things,” she says. “Because I have to tell you, I am really into being a lawyer.”