from staff
William H. Neukom, a partner in the Seattle office of K&L Gates, is the new president of the 413,000-member American Bar Association. His one-year term began in August at the adjournment of the association’s Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
Neukom succeeds Karen Mathis. Also at the meeting, Birmingham, Ala. litigation attorney H. Thomas Wells Jr. was elected president-elect for the ABA.
Neukom was Microsoft Corp.’s chief lawyer for nearly a quarter-century. As executive vice president of Law and Corporate Affairs, Neukom managed Microsoft’s legal, government affairs and philanthropic activities for 17 years. Previously, he was the firm’s lead counsel while working as a partner at Preston, Gates & Ellis. Neukom rejoined Preston Gates in 2002.
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 Apple Computer v. Microsoft Corporation, a copyright case which spanned from 1988–95. 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 1983-87, and as Washington State Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates from 1999 to 2006. 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 served as a trustee of the National Judicial College from 2003–06.
Neukom also has been active in community work, serving as: a member of the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees from 1996–2007 (chair 2004–07); a member of the University of Puget Sound Board of Trustees from 1995–2006; a member of the Dean’s Council at Stanford Law School from 1999 to present;; member of the YMCA of Greater Seattle Board of Directors from 1988-2007; chair of the Gates Challenge Endowment Campaign of the United Way of King County from 2002–07; member of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce Board of Trustees from 1987 to present (chair 2000–02); member of the Pacific Council on International Policy from 2002 to present; and member of the Policy Consensus Center from 2004 to present.
In 1995, Neukom and his four children founded the Neukom Family Foundation. The foundation supports not-for-profit organizations principally in the fields of health and human services, education, justice and the environment.
Neukom 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.
His primary initiative as president is the World Justice Project.