Gen. Counsel Green to leave U. after 19 yrs.

Shelley Green, 48, said she is resigning to pursue other interests. University General Counsel Shelley Green, a 19-year Penn veteran who has overseen much of the school's legal affairs since 1982, resigned last week effective December 31 to pursue other personal and professional interests. Green, 48, will become a senior adviser to the University, but she said she has not yet decided what she will be doing full time. She earned $162,931 in salary and benefits for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 1997, according to Penn income-tax forms. "I'm looking forward to spending more time with my family as my children navigate through middle school," Green said. "[The resignation will] give me the opportunity to explore long-standing interests including other non-profit issues, research matters and some writing. "One always has a way of getting more embroiled in one's career than one anticipates," Green added. Her decision comes about a year after the University hired Peter Erichsen as its top lawyer, overseeing both University and Health System legal operations in the newly created position of vice president and general counsel. Yesterday, though, Green said Erichsen's hiring had nothing to do with her departure. And Green is not the only member of the General Counsel's Office to depart this year: Debra Fickler, one of five associate general counsels, started Monday as a deputy general counsel at Villanova University after almost 15 years at Penn. Erichsen will conduct a search for Green's replacement, according to her Health System counterpart, Thomas Tammany. The alumna of Vassar College and Harvard Law School said she is confident that her office will be in good hands with Erichsen when she leaves Penn. And Erichsen was quick to praise his departing colleague. "Shelley will be greatly missed," Erichsen was quoted as saying in Almanac, an official University publication. "I am pleased that she has agreed to be available to the University in the months to come." Erichsen did not respond to several phone calls for comment. Tammany said Green "brought an excellent perspective to any of the issues that we were reviewing." Green joined the University as an assistant general counsel in 1979 and was promoted to general counsel three years later. Before that, she spent four years as an associate with the Washington, D.C., law firm of Sutherland, Asbill and Brennan followed by a year at the U.S. Office of Health, Education and Welfare. She added that she is "proudest of building an office," because when she arrived, "I was virtually the only person" there. "It has been interesting for every moment that I've been here," Green added. "I feel that time has flown by and that the University is an endlessly interesting and challenging client." At least one person close to Green was excited about her announcement: Her 12-year-old son said, "Wow, Newt Gingrich and Mom in the same week!" when she told him of her decision. She said she still needs to plan her son's upcoming Bar Mitzvah. Green also has a 10-year-old daughter.