Thursday, October 1, 2026
From being part of the first class of women at Princeton University to her prolific law career to her community involvement, Sea Cliff resident Victoria Bjorklund is driven by what she calls “the helper gene.” The helper gene versus the ego gene, she said, was an expression she would use when giving her students career advice during her nine years teaching at Harvard University.
“To have the ego gene, you should go into a field like investment banking, where you judge yourself by the size of your bonus,” Bjorklund, 74, said. “If you have the helper gene, you should go into a field where you are serving others.”
Bjorklund grew up in Manhasset, and she her husband Hank Bjorklund, former New York Jets running back, bought their first house in Sea Cliff in 2008.
Much of Bjorklund’s career centered around helping nonprofit organizations and strengthening French-American ties. She initially studied Medieval Studies at Princeton and eventually earned a doctorate in the subject at Yale University. Her interest, she said, stemmed from reading Howard Pyle’s “Knights of the Round Table” books, based on the Arthurian legends written in Anglo-Norman French, a dialect spoken by Viking invaders of Norman France.
Bjorklund later attended Columbia Law School, she said, after Hank convinced her to take the law school administration test while he was pursuing his own law degree. She earned her law degree in 1983 and worked at Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett her entire career, where she asked if she could create a department dedicated to helping nonprofit organizations. One of her first clients was Doctors Without Borders, started by a group of French doctors.
“They didn’t know any Americans, and they needed three Americans on the board,” Bjorklund said, “and so I became that American.” She was the organization’s first United States volunteer and became its legal counsel.
Several other French nonprofits and charities hired Bjorklund over the years. She was engaged by the Louvre Museum to create American Friends of Louvre, which launched in 2002. The organization raises funds for Louvre projects and accepts gifts of artwork and furniture that the museum is interested in acquiring from American collectors. Bjorklund served on the board as legal secretary and is still a director emerita.
Bjorklund also helped create Friends of Fondation de France and has sat on its board since its inception in 2000. Created by the French legislature at the request of Charles de Gaulle, Fondation de France serves as a community foundation for the whole country. The organization was looking for a United States affiliate, leading to the creation of Friends of Fondation de France.
With few lawyers in the United States specializing in working with nonprofits, Bjorklund became active in that area of law. This, along with Bjorklund’s success working with nonprofits, led organizations to seek her out.
“It’s been a great honor for me,” she said. “Some of the organizations that hired me did national searches and considered 50 law firms and lawyers and ended up selecting me.”
Bjorklund was one of the early women at her law firm, and she described being in the first class of women at Princeton as the “best preparation” for that scenario. She said she experienced shunning, and male students “glowered” at her after a professor commented that women belonged at home.
“I just ignored them, and they, I think, felt stupid for what they were doing eventually,” Bjorklund said, “and I worked really, really hard in that course, and I got an A plus and an apology from the professor.”
She recounted being told at Yale that the men in her class would be placed ahead of her to get jobs simply because they were men. So, Bjorklund sought out her own job instead.
After decades of work with French nonprofits, Bjorklund was named a Knight of the Légion d’Honneur, France’s highest civilian honor, in 2025.
“I know the huge honor that it is,” she said, “and I was stunned.”
Her love for France, Bjorklund explained, began when she got a French pen pal in seventh grade, to whom she continued writing through high school. Pyle’s books also contributed to her interest, she added.
“I’m so interested in French culture,” Bjorklund said, “There’s a deep respect for literature and for history. You can go to castles and visit the ruins and have people who are very knowledgeable about these things that happened in the 11th and 12th centuries.”
Bjorklund also works with the Robin Hood Foundation, a New York City poverty-fighting organization, as well as the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
In Sea Cliff, she worked with her firm to secure tax exemption for the village’s pump house. She is on the steering committee for St. Luke’s Episcopal Church’s Project Renewal and sings in the church’s choir. Bjorklund also participates in oyster gardening with the Coalition to Save Hempstead Harbor, the Shakespeare Club and short story reading club run by Ann and Dan DiPietro, and she serves as coordinator for the Sea Cliff Poets Circle.
Bjorklund’s husband said he has always been proud of her and that asking her to marry him was the “smartest thing” he has ever done.
“I’ve always tried to support her,” Hank said. “When she would tell me of some of the things she was dealing with at work, I’m glad she didn’t listen to me because I wanted to go in there and start throwing punches. She kills people with kindness.”
