Christine A. Varney, B.A.’77, was an undergraduate at the University at Albany at a time when computer science majors would punch manila cards and run their programs at odd hours at the Computer Center. Varney majored not in computer science, but in political science and history, and it was her husband, Thomas J. Graham, who introduced her to computers. Since then, however, she has made a name for herself when it comes to privacy issues and commerce on the Internet.

Currently head of the Internet Practice Group at Hogan & Hartson, one of the largest law firms in Washington, D.C., the 44-year-old Varney is widely recognized as having played a key role in shaping the Clinton Administration’s policies toward regulating the Internet.

For her, Varney said, college was as much a social experience as an academic experience. “I was more social at that point, but I became progressively more studious,” she recalled with a laugh in a recent telephone interview as she flew from Washington to Dallas. Aside from the social world, however, she said, “I think I was always interested in politics and public policy and government, although I clearly didn’t know exactly what form that would take. I took a lot of English courses, I took a lot of history, a lot of political science...typical liberal arts.”

As part of her political science degree, Varney was a legislative assistant to State Sen. Tarky Lombardi of Syracuse when he was chairman of the budget committee. “I worked a lot on the budget,” she said. She graduated magna cum laude.

Varney then earned a master’s degree in public administration, also magna cum laude, at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School in 1978. She became an economic analyst for the U.S. Government Accounting Office, and that job led her to Washington, her birthplace.

In Washington, she decided to go to law school and enrolled at Georgetown University, where she earned her law degree, cum laude, in 1986. In 1990, Varney joined Hogan & Hartson. She served as general counsel to the Democratic National Committee from 1989 to 1992, chief counsel to the Clinton/Gore Campaign in 1992, secretary to President Clinton’s Cabinet from 1993 to 1994, and on the Federal Trade Commission from 1994 to 1997. She returned to Hogan & Hartson in 1997 and organized the Internet Practice Group.

Varney’s service on the Federal Trade Commission introduced her to the issues of fraud and consumer protection on the web.

“What I think you have to be careful of on the Internet,” she said, “is that we first look to existing law and see where existing law is adequate, and where existing law is not adequate. Then we need to think about supplementing. But, you know, we have a lot of law on the books right now, and I think it’s a question of trying to figure out how to enforce it in cyberspace.

“One of the things that you do need to be careful about,” Varney said, “is that legislation is static. It can be a very blunt instrument, and the Internet is very dynamic. Technology can create lots of opportunities [and] it can create the potential for abuse, but it can also create the solutions for those problems.

“You want to give enough time for the market to see if it can respond to the problems before you legislate or regulate, and then you want to do very narrow, very light regulation because it is a new and emerging marketplace, and you don’t want to stifle it.”