Bill Neukom

In 2007 Bill Neukom is the Immediate Past President of the American Bar Association, where he worked to champion access to legal services for the poor. He promoted the World Justice Project, an initiative to strengthen the rule of law worldwide. He currently serves as the new managing general partner of the San Francisco Giants. Formerly, Mr. Neukom was a partner at K&L Gates. He re–joined the firm in the fall of 2002 from his position as Executive Vice President of Law and Corporate Affairs at Microsoft, where he spent 17 years managing the company’s legal, government affairs and philanthropic activities.

During his nearly quarter century as its lead counsel, Mr. Neukom led Microsoft’s efforts to establish, distribute and protect intellectual property rights around the world. He was instrumental in securing the landmark legal victory in the Apple Computer v. Microsoft Corporation case, which spanned 1988 – 1995. He also led Microsoft’s defense of antitrust claims brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, U.S. Department of Justice and the European Union, which culminated in consent decrees in 1994 and in 2001.

Under his direction, Microsoft’s community affairs program initiated a number of key corporate giving strategies, including the Microsoft Giving Campaign, the Microsoft Matching Gifts program, the Microsoft Volunteer Program, and several national scale projects, including Libraries on Line.

Mr. Neukom has been active in organized bar work, serving as chair of the Young Lawyers Division of the Seattle–King County Bar Association (1972–73) and the American Bar Association (ABA) (1977–78), secretary (1983–87) of the ABA and Washington State Delegate (1999–2006) to the ABA House of Delegates.