Nancy Lillian Buc, Esq., was born in Orange, New Jersey on July 27, 1944 to Ethel R. and George L. Buc. She has one living sibling, Lawrence G. Buc (Brown '68) and one deceased sibling, Vivian E. Buc. She grew up in West Orange, New Jersey, and the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before moving to the Washington, DC area while in college. In the Pittsburgh suburbs, Buc attended public grade school and then the Upper St. Clair Junior-Senior High School before matriculating at Pembroke College in Brown University in 1961. At Pembroke, Buc participated in student life and served on the Student Government Association, including a term as president, and was elected to Question Club in her senior year. She was also a humor columnist for the Pembroke Record, writing Wry and Ginger under the pen name C.C. York. Buc graduated in the class of 1965 with an A.B. in American Civilization. She went on to earn an LL.B. degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1969 and later received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Brown in 1994.
Buc began her legal career as an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission in 1969, serving, among other positions, as Attorney-Adviser to Chairman Miles W. Kirkpatrick and then Assistant Director of the agency's Bureau of Consumer Protection – the first woman to hold those positions. In 1972, Buc joined the law firm Weil, Gotshal and Manges. She was the firm's first woman partner, remaining at the firm until becoming Chief Counsel for the United States Food and Drug Administration (the first woman to hold that job) from 1980 to 1981. In 1981, Buc returned to Weil, Gotshal and Manges and stayed there until 1994. She then left to co-found with attorney Kate Beardsley the Washington, DC law firm Buc and Beardsley. Buc retired from practicing law on March 31, 2011 at the age of 66.
During her professional years, Buc had a distinguished legal career with a strong focus on advertising law and food and drug law. She served as a Member of several major government panels, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, the NIH Consensus Panel on Effective Medical Treatment of Heroin Addiction, the Office of Technology Assessments Advisory Panels on Government Policies and Pharmaceutical Research and Development and New Developments in Biotechnology, and the Life Sciences Research Organization's Committee on Tobacco Regulation. She was also a Member of the Institute of Medicine's Committees on Contraceptive Research and Development and NIDA Medications Development. Buc served on the Board of Directors of the Food and Drug Law Institute, including a term as Chair. She served on the boards of two publicly-held companies, Exelixis (formerly, Agritope Inc.) and Dynavax Technologies Corporation. She also served as Director of the Virginia Law School Foundation and Director of the National Partnership for Women and Families.
Buc remained deeply connected to her alma mater, serving for more than 20 years on the Brown Corporation as a member of the Board of Fellows (1980-1992) and Board of Trustees (1973-1978, 1998-2004). She was one of the early supporters of Brown's Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women and its Associates, focusing her recent work on the successful campaign to raise an endowment for the Pembroke Center Archives. She also served on the planning committee for the celebration of Brown's 250th Anniversary. [Portions of this biography derive from Bloomberg Research online.]
Please not that this series was previously restricted, but opened for reaearch in 2025.
This collection consists of the papers of Nancy L. Buc, an attorney who was the first woman to hold several positions in the US government (Chief Counsel to the Food and Drug Administration, Attorney-Adviser to the Chairman, then Assistant Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, both at the Federal Trade Commission). She was also the first woman partner in her New York law firm, and one of the first few women founders of a law firm in Washington, DC. She graduated from Brown University in 1965. The collection documents Buc's personal and professional life. Materials include biographical information, correspondence, conference material, speeches, writings, subject files, print material, photographs, and electronic records dating from 1950-2015. The collection is arranged into 10 series.
Series 1, BIOGRAPHICAL, 1954-2011, highlights Buc's biography, educational and family background, professional development, and schedules. Material includes awards and honors, clippings about Buc, an extensive collection of date books, education-related material including from Buc's primary and secondary schools, her diploma and other ephemera from Pembroke College in Brown University, and her applications to the legal bar after obtaining her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. Series 1 also includes Buc's drivers licenses and identification cards and her mother's obituary. This series is arranged alphabetically by record type.
Series 2, CORRESPONDENCE, 1961-2013, contains personal and professional correspondence, arranged chronologically. Included in correspondence are letters of congratulations to Buc upon her appointment as Chief Counsel of the Food and Drug Administration in 1980 (#3.10-3.12) and letters from Rosemary Pierrel Sorrentino, Buc's mentor and the Dean of Pembroke College in Brown University from 1961-1972 (#3.25).
Series 3, CONFERENCES, 1983-2007, includes programs, proceedings, conference schedules, participant lists, and other related material regarding conferences that Buc attended or at which she spoke. This series is arranged chronologically.
Series 4, SPEECHES AND RELATED, 1964-2012, contains a list of speeches Buc gave between 1987-1989, notes, speaker bios, speaker notices, and speech text for various personal and professional talks by Buc. Speeches of note include: "Speech in [Pembroke College] Convocation"(1964), "Cinderella in the Goldfish Bowl" (1974), "Statement of Nancy L. Buc Before Food and Drug Administration Public Hearing on Direct-to-consumer Promotion of Prescription Drugs" (1985), and "Memorial Minute for Rosemary Pierrel Sorrentino" (2003). Series 4 is arranged alphabetically by record type, then by title of speech.
Series 5, WRITINGS BY NANCY L. BUC, 1973-2015, includes drafts, final publications, and some related correspondence regarding articles, books, chapters, columns, outlines, and papers written or co-written by Buc. Works of note include chapter three of Women Lawyers: Perspective on Success (1984), "Escalating Health Care Costs: Government and Business Aim At the Problem -- And At Each Other" (1984), "RU 486, the FDA and Free Enterprise" (1992), and "FDA Regulation of Advertising for Over-the-counter Drugs" by Buc and Robert P. Brady (no date). Though Series 5 contains outlines written by Buc potentially for the purpose of lectures or panel presentations, researchers seeking talks by Buc should see Series 4, Speeches. Series 5 is arranged chronologically then alphabetically by title.
Series 6, Louise Lamphere Vs. Brown University Exhibit Files, 1970-2015, regards Buc's participation on a Pembroke Center exhibit planning committee, which formed to highlight a key moment in Brown's history for the University's 250th Anniversary celebration. The planning committee chose to exhibit the history of the landmark class action lawsuit, Louise Lamphere vs. Brown University, where in 1974, an assistant professor named Louise Lamphere was denied tenure in Brown's Anthropology Department. Believing that she was a victim of sex discrimination, Lamphere challenged the university. In May of 1975, she filed suit against Brown in U.S. District Court, arguing both that she had been discriminated against and that the small number of women on the Brown faculty at the time reflected systemic bias. In 1977, the case was settled before the charge of sex discrimination was decided when the university entered into a consent decree that bound Brown to undertake fundamental changes to foster the hiring, promotion and tenure of female faculty members in every discipline – revisions that, over time, advanced opportunities for women at Brown and in higher education throughout the United States. This series ontains general project files, research material collected from the Brown University Archives and Corporation and files sent to Buc from Pembroke Archivist Wendy Korwin and Louise Lamphere documenting Lamphere's experience during her tenure review and the subsequent lawsuit. This series is arranged alphabetically by record type.
Series 7, SUBJECT FILES, 1971-1995, includes a small set of clippings and other items collected by Buc on Miles W. Kirkpatrick, Ira Millstein, and Wallace Terry. This series is arranged alphabetically by last name.
Series 8, PRINT MATERIALS, 1972-2005, contains a small set of booklets, commemorative volumes, newsletters and reports collected by Buc on topics of professional interest. This series is arranged alphabetically by record type then title.
Series 9, PHOTOGRAPHS, 1958-1994, consists of one folder of black and white photographs of Buc during various moments in her life including childhood, her college years, and time as an attorney in Washington, DC. Series 8 is arranged in one folder.
Series 10, ELECTRONIC RECORDS, 1987-1992, contains a half file box of VHS tapes. Recordings document talks and conference presentations by Buc. This series is arranged alphabetically by record type then by the original titles contained on the carriers. These tiles are noted in quotation marks.
All researchers seeking to publish materials from the collections of the John Hay Library are requested to complete a Notice of Intent to Publish, available on the John Hay Library website or by request, prior to reproducing, quoting, or otherwise publishing any portion or extract from this collection. Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the literary rights and to obtain any necessary permissions from them.
Nancy L. Buc Papers, AMS-1U-B9, Box [#], Folder [#], Pembroke Center Archives, John Hay Library, Brown University.
This collection is arranged into 10 series.
There are no restrictions on access for analog materials, except that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested. Advance notice is required to view born-digital records. Born-digital materials in this collection may not have been reformatted yet. Researchers may request access to copies by contacting the John Hay Library with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed to hay@brown.edu.
Gift of Nancy L. Buc in 2011.
This collection was part of the Pembroke Center's Christine Dunlap Farnham Archive until 2024 when collections were recataloged. All collections previously grouped under that title are now searchable under the subject headings "Women and Gender at Brown University" or "Feminist Activism in Rhode Island."