William H. Neukom

William H. Neukom, "chair of Preston Gates & Ellis LLP in Seattle, is president-elect of the American Bar Association. He became president-elect in August 2006, at the association’s 2006 Annual Meeting in Honolulu.

"Neukom rejoined Preston Gates & Ellis LLP 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. He was elected chair of the firm effective January 2004.

"As Microsoft’s lead counsel, Neukom led the company'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. Neukom 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 2001.

"Under Neukom’s 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.

"Before joining Microsoft, Neukom was a partner of Preston Gates & Ellis LLP, where he had a general practice with emphasis on litigation, commercial law and nonprofit organizations.

"He has been active in organized bar work, serving as chair of the Young Lawyers Division of the Seattle–King County Bar Association from 1972–73 and in the same capacity with the American Bar Association from 1977–78. Neukom also served on the ABA Board of Governors as secretary of the ABA from 1983-1987, and as Washington State Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates from 1999 to present. He chaired the ABA Fund for Justice and Education from 1997-99; the ABA Task Force on Goal VIII from 2002-03, which examined the association’s rule of law programming; and the ABA Governance Commission from 2003-05.

"Neukom serves as chair of the Dartmouth College Board and as a board member of the Dean’s Council at Stanford Law School, the Pacific Council on International Policy, the Policy Consensus Center, and the YMCA of Greater Seattle. He chairs the Gates Challenge Endowment Campaign of the United Way of King County, and is general partner in San Francisco Baseball Associates, L.P., the ownership group of the San Francisco Giants.

"Neukom earned his LL.B. from Stanford University in 1967 and clerked for Judge Theodore S. Turner of the King County Superior Court from 1967-68. He received his A.B. from Dartmouth College in 1964."


 * Advisory Board, William D. Ruckelshaus Center