The Floor General

In 1976, the University of Southern California women’s basketball team became one of the first Division I programs in the country to award scholarships to its athletes. That same year, freshman Julie E. Green joined the team. “It was the beginning of women’s basketball, the early stages. We were not even in the NCAA then,” says Green, who remained with the program through her sophomore year. “We actually played with a men’s basketball, and we didn’t have 3-point lines. But it was fun, and it was high-level.” 

Five feet, 10 inches tall, Green played point guard, utilizing abilities she honed as a softball shortstop and a flag-football quarterback. “When I was 15, I could throw the ball from end zone to end zone, 60 yards on the fly. I was on the cover of the Los Angeles Times’ sports section,” Green says. “I wanted the game to flow through me and be in control of the ball, to see things develop.” 

Now a business attorney at Weintraub Tobin in Sacramento, Green began her career with a Wall Street law firm in New York in 1983. “Women in corporate law were rare; most of the time, I was the only woman in the room,” she says. “Being a college athlete, I was able to have something neutral to talk about. Just being able to talk sports with the guys was really helpful.” 

Also helpful were the skills she had picked up from her days as an elite athlete. “The preparation, doing the hard work, being able to look ahead, understanding what’s coming, and understanding what everybody on my team and the other team is trying to do—those were skills that transferred over to being a corporate deal attorney,” she says. 

As did holding her ground. While refereeing a men’s intramural basketball game at USC, Green once had to toss future NFL Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott out of the gym after he failed to respect one of her foul calls. Relaying the anecdote later helped Green land a major client when they asked if she was “tough enough” to handle their assignment. 

When Green moved to Sacramento in the early ’90s, she joined a men’s lawyers basketball league. “It was really helpful from a networking perspective. Being able to ‘be in the room’— it was a fun and different way to get to know your colleagues.”