Monica Bay

1949 - 2023

Monica Bay
May 27, 1949 - October 27, 2023
Monica passed away peacefully on October 27th after a long battle with a neurological disease. She moved to an assisted living facility in El Dorado Hills in September of 2021 in order to be closer to her brother and his family. Monica is survived by her sisters Martha (Foosie) O'Neil and Carolyn (Spanky) and brother Bill. Add in three nephews, two nieces, and three grand nieces.
Monica was born in Chicago, the granddaughter of George Bay, founder of Bay's English Muffins. Her parents George W Bay, Jr (Bill) and Lillian moved to Hillsborough California in 1950. Monica attended Notre Dame High School. She displayed a bit of a rebellious streak in her teen years. To the chagrin of her parents, Monica never seemed to follow the stereotypical lifestyle of a traditional college, then marriage & family. It started with her love of rock and roll.
Monica's little blue stereo was the focal point for the kids in the family, Beatles music and teen magazines the centerpiece. A love of journalism was starting to show itself as Monica started her longtime habit of sending Herb Caen tidbits for him to print. For those that were not in the Bay Area, Mr. Caen had THE column in the Chronicle that readers devoured before turning to the comics or sporting green sections. Then off to the new UC Santa Cruz campus with its counter-culture reputation, where Monica graduated with honors in 1971. An old beater of a car managed to take her to Minnesota and graduate work in journalism and sociology at the U of M. Monica talked her way into covering music for the UM Minnesota Daily and managed to have occasional pieces published in Rolling Stone magazine. For those of you that have seen Cameron Crowe's semi-autobiographical movie "Almost Famous", Monica was doing the same thing at the same time as Cameron. The local music critic Jon Bream was a mentor for Monica during this phase of her life.
After leaving Minnesota, Monica worked at a small rock-and-roll radio station in Sacramento. She interviewed Sacramento leaders for the news department. Sacramento turned out to be a terrific location for covering the news and she was one of the first reporters that uncovered a scandal at United Way. This experience was a turning point for her and prompted her to apply to law school. Monica attended the University of San Francisco School of Law at night, where her regular column in the school paper made her a bit of a celebrity. Law school provided an opportunity for involvement in the American Bar Association Law Student Division. Monica interviewed numerous dignitaries, including Hillary Clinton, for their magazine.
Monica briefly practiced law but quickly found that journalism and the law was her "thing," which turned into her passion. She took a job as a reporter for The Recorder (ALM), a legal newspaper in San Francisco. In 1998 she moved to New York, where she was promoted to Editor-In-Chief of Law Technology News. Over the subsequent seventeen years Monica became an influential voice in her field. She was a regular on panels and a keynote speaker at conferences, wrote a popular blog, and mentored numerous staff, colleagues, and anyone who sought her advice and counsel-and some who didn't. She welcomed anyone interested in law and technology into her orbit. She was proud to be a woman "competing with the boys" but worked hard with women and men to help them along in their careers. When Monica retired in 2015 the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) dedicated an award and a STEM initiative in her honor.
Monica realized that technology was transforming legal practices. She recognized that most legal work was done for the wealthy and that larger firms had the resources to make it difficult for smaller firms to compete. Technology was an equalizer, giving smaller firms a better ability to compete and that was opening the door for more people to use legal services.
Monica was at work in New York on September 11th when the planes flew into the World Trade Center buildings. She grabbed a camera and joined David Horrigan, one of the reporters, and managed to work her way close to ground zero, her pictures of the eerie site were used in the next publication.
After retirement, Monica joined Stanford University as a Fellow at CodeX, The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics, and contributed articles to Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters. She and her good friend and colleague Sean La Roque-Doherty set up shop as consultants and freelance writers.
Monica did have one misguided obsession. When she moved to New York she became a serious Yankees fan. Her friend Terry Lloyd tried to get Monica to see the benefits of being a Red Sox fan, and her brother attempted to snap her out of her obsession with regular visits to watch the Giants, all to no avail.
There will be a memorial service for Monica at the Hilton Garden Inn on Bridgepointe Circle in San Mateo November 30th at 11:30, lunch provided. A second service will be held at the New York Hilton Midtown Hotel at 1335 Ave of the Americas on December 7th at 5:00.
Please consider donations to your local SPCA in lieu of flowers.