FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE       
August 22, 2006      

Contact Alfredo Tryferis       
Communications Specialist
206-733-5932; alfredot@wsba.org

Seattle Attorney William H. Neukom Named President-elect of American Bar Association

Seattle, Washington, August 22, 2006 —Seattle attorney William H. Neukom has been named president-elect of the American Bar Association (ABA). Neukom will assume the office of president in August 2007.

Neukom, currently chair of Preston Gates & Ellis LLP, was the executive vice president of law and corporate affairs at Microsoft for 17 years, where he was instrumental in securing the landmark legal victory in Apple Computer v. Microsoft Corporation. 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.

Neukom has been active in both the ABA and local bar associations. He served as chair of the Young Lawyers Division of the Seattle-King County Bar Association from 1972 to 1973, and in the same capacity with the American Bar Association from 1977 to 1978. He served as secretary of the ABA Board of Governors from 1983 to 1987, and has represented Washington state in the ABA House of Delegates since 1999. He also chaired the ABA Fund for Justice and Education from 1997 to 1999; the ABA Task Force on Goal VIII from 2002 to 2003; and the ABA Governance Commission from 2003 to 2005.

A tireless volunteer, Neukom is currently the chair of the Dartmouth College Board and is 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 also chairs the Gates Challenge Endowment Campaign of the United Way of King County.

A graduate of Dartmouth College and Stanford University, Neukom clerked for Judge Theodore S. Turner of the King County Superior Court from 1967 to 1968.

With more than 410,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world.
 
About the WSBA
 
The WSBA is part of the judicial branch, exercising a governmental function authorized by the Washington State Supreme Court to license the state's 29,800 lawyers. The WSBA both regulates lawyers under the authority of the Court and serves its members as a professional association — all without public funding.
 
As a regulatory agency, it administers the bar admission process, including the bar exam; provides record-keeping and licensing functions; and administers the lawyer-discipline system. As a professional association, the WSBA provides continuing legal education for attorneys, in addition to numerous other educational and member-service activities.
 
The governance of the WSBA is vested in its 14-person Board of Governors. There are three governors from the seventh congressional district; one from each of the other eight districts; and three at-large members, one of whom represents the Young Lawyers Division. The 2005-2006 president is S. Brooke Taylor, of Port Angeles, and the 2005-2006 president-elect is Ellen Conedera Dial, of Seattle.
 
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