William H. Neukom, Microsoft’s longtime chief lawyer, who was the company’s legal field general during its bruising landmark antitrust battle with the government in the 1990s, died on July 14 at his home in Seattle. He was 83.
His death was confirmed by his son, John. The family did not state a cause.
For a time, Mr. Neukom, an ardent baseball fan, was the chief executive of his beloved San Francisco Giants, but it was his work for Microsoft that first thrust him into the national spotlight.
In the 1990s, Microsoft was the dominant technology giant of its day, and the outcome of its confrontation with the Justice Department and several states resonates today, having established legal precedents that guide the current antitrust scrutiny of other tech giants, including Alphabet, Google’s corporate parent; Amazon; Apple; and Meta, Facebook’s parent.
The antitrust case against Microsoft came during a crucial technology transition, as the personal computer era was giving way to the internet era.
The government’s main claim was that Microsoft was trying to stifle competition through its monopoly in personal computer software, gained with its product Windows, which controlled a machine’s basic operations. The government alleged that Microsoft had bullied computer companies into not offering software from upstart rivals, and that Microsoft tied new software into Windows to prevent the rise of new products and companies.
The primary target of Microsoft’s campaign to thwart competition, the government said, was Netscape, the early leader in browser software, a gateway to the web.
The Microsoft trial, which began in Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., in October 1998 and spanned 76 days of testimony over more than eight months, generally went badly for Microsoft. Day after day, the government produced documents and emails that pointed to Microsoft’s bare-knuckle tactics, quoting colorful phrases like “cut off their air supply.”
Mr. Neukom and Microsoft’s trial lawyers disputed the documentary evidence, claiming it was inaccurate, misleading, taken out of context and not representative of company policy.
The trial was not just a courtroom confrontation, but also a media event with steady coverage in newspapers, magazines and on television. And Mr. Neukom — tall, lean, silver-haired and always wearing a bow tie — became a recognized figure outside legal circles. Many days he would speak on the courthouse steps, presenting Microsoft’s spin on the day’s proceedings. His manner was courtly, but his speech was often acerbic. His theme: Microsoft was a fierce but fair competitor whose actions were not only legal, but also good for consumers and the American economy.
“Bill Neukom was the defender of the realm,” Andrew I. Gavil, an antitrust expert and professor of law at Howard University, said in an interview.
But Microsoft suffered a stinging defeat. In a trial without a jury, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson not only ruled that the company had repeatedly violated the nation’s antitrust laws; he also ordered that Microsoft be broken up.
Microsoft did far better in appealing the ruling, however. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia shelved the breakup order, though it upheld the ruling that Microsoft’s bullying deals with PC makers were illegal. At the same time, the appellate court expressed skepticism that courts should make judgments about technology design decisions, like Microsoft’s move to include a browser in Windows as an added feature rather than as a separate product.
Microsoft caught a break when George W. Bush was elected president. Aggressive antitrust enforcement was not a priority of the Bush administration. In 2001, the administration reached a settlement with Microsoft, prohibiting it from making anticompetitive contracts and requiring it to share some technical information, but going no further.
“Neukom played the long game, and Microsoft came out of that case relatively unscathed,” Mr. Gavil said. “And today Microsoft is bigger and more profitable than ever.”
William Horlick. Neukom was born on Nov. 7, 1941, in Chicago to John and Ruth Neukom. His father, a graduate of the University of Chicago, was hired there as a consultant for McKinsey & Company. His mother, also a University of Chicago graduate, was a homemaker and volunteer in community organizations.
His father was dispatched to Northern California to open a McKinsey office in San Francisco, and Mr. Neukom mainly grew up in San Mateo, Calif., with his three siblings. After high school, he went to Dartmouth College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1964. He returned to the West Coast for law school, to Stanford, earning his law degree in 1967. Afterward, he moved to Seattle for a job as a law clerk in a state Superior Court.
After the clerkship, Mr. Neukom went into private practice in Seattle. In the late 1970s, he recalled, a senior partner at a firm where he was working said his son was moving his fledgling software business with a dozen employees from Albuquerque, N.M., to suburban Seattle. “I thought you could keep an eye on them,” Mr. Neukom recalled the father, Bill Gates Sr., saying.
For Mr. Neukom, the referral was the beginning of a lasting and lucrative relationship with the younger Bill Gates and his company, Microsoft. He became its outside counsel in 1978 and joined the company as general counsel in 1985, a year before Microsoft sold shares to the public.
There were other legal challenges to navigate over the years, beyond antitrust. In 1994, Apple sued Microsoft for copyright infringement. Apple claimed that the Windows operating system, with its use of point-and-click icons, illegally copied the “look and feel” of Apple’s Macintosh software. The court ruled in Microsoft’s favor, saying Apple could not get protection for “the idea of a graphical user interface.”
His Microsoft-generated wealth allowed Mr. Neukom to pursue other interests and opportunities. A lifelong San Francisco Giants fan, he joined an investor group in 1995 seeking to stabilize the team’s finances at a time when the Giants were still ensconced in Candlestick Park, an unappealing museum of a stadium. There were rumors that the team might be departing San Francisco.
“Bill Neukom was a true believer in the mid-1990s, when there weren’t a lot of true believers,” recalled Larry Baer, the Giants’ current chief executive.
Mr. Neukom increased his investment and involvement, becoming chief executive in 2008. He held that position when, two years later, the Giants won the World Series for the first time since they moved to San Francisco in 1958. He stepped down in 2011.
After Mr. Neukom left Microsoft in 2002, he focused on professional and philanthropic activities, often with a social-justice focus. He was president of the American Bar Association from 2007 to 2008 and established its commission on sexual orientation and gender identity.
In 2006, he founded the World Justice Project, a nonprofit that measures and promotes the rule of law globally. The Neukom Family Foundation supports low-income housing, Planned Parenthood, the National Women’s Law Center and the Innocence Project, among others.
Mr. Neukom’s marriage to Diane McMakin in 1963 ended in divorce in 1977. In addition to his son John, who goes by Jay, from his first marriage, Mr. Neukom is survived by his wife of 29 years, Sally (Beard) Neukom; three daughters from his first marriage, Josselyn Neukom, Samantha Neukom and Gillian Neukom Toledo; his brothers, Davidson and Daniel; and 14 grandchildren. His sister, Barbara Neukom Bohn, died last year.
Throughout Microsoft’s antitrust battles, Mr. Neukom never wavered in his commitment to the company. “I believe in what Microsoft is doing,” he said in an interview with the Dartmouth alumni magazine in 2002, shortly before he left Microsoft. He called Bill Gates an “applied genius,” adding, “It’s hard to imagine anything more satisfying than delivering tools that enable people to improve themselves as workers and as individuals.”
Steve Lohr writes about technology and its impact on the economy, jobs and the workplace.
The post William H. Neukom, Microsoft Lawyer Who Led Antitrust Fight, Dies at 83 appeared first on New York Times.
