William H. Neukom
K&L Gates mourns the passing of our colleague and partner, Bill Neukom. His contributions to the firm and the Seattle legal community will be greatly missed.
The Neukom family mourns the passing of William H. (Bill) Neukom, who died peacefully at home in Seattle on 14 July 2025, surrounded by his family.
With his life, Bill created a legacy of leadership and inclusivity in the legal profession, higher education, philanthropy, Seattle, San Francisco, and the world of baseball. He served as Microsoft’s first general counsel, steering the company’s legal affairs from its infancy in the 1970s until it became the most valuable company in the world; president of the American Bar Association; chairman of Preston Gates & Ellis (now K&L Gates); managing partner and CEO of the San Francisco Giants; chairman of the Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College; and in later years the founder and CEO of the World Justice Project. Bill also served as the loving and encouraging patriarch for his children and grandchildren, guiding them by his example and counsel to become “useful citizens.”
Born on 7 November 1941, in Chicago, Bill was raised in the San Mateo Park neighborhood of San Mateo, California. His father (John) was a partner of McKinsey & Company who opened and managed the San Francisco office for decades, and his mother (Ruth or “Bunny”) was a community leader on the Bay Area’s peninsula. Bill spoke with admiration of the home that his parents created. Both graduates of the University of Chicago during the Robert Maynard Hutchins administration—Bill would explain—John and Bunny encouraged their children to explore the “life of the mind” and to engage their communities as useful citizens.
After serving as Chief Justice of the student court for San Mateo High School, and graduating in 1959, Bill spent 1959-60 as a “gap” year studying in Grenoble, France—which would provide him with workable French delivered with a gorgeous accent for the ensuing 65 years of his life. Bill earned his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College in 1964, and his law degree from Stanford Law School in 1967, both academic institutions he would hold dear and continue to serve during his life.
After law school, Bill moved to Seattle to serve as a law clerk to Judge Theodore S. Turner of the King County Superior Court. Bill recounted Judge Turner as scholarly, patient and with a work ethic to be emulated. After clerking, Bill began private practice in Seattle with an emphasis on commercial and civil rights litigation. In the 1970s, through the Seattle Bar Association, Bill was befriended by Bill Gates Sr., who became Bill’s law firm colleague, mentor, and role model for civic engagement.
In the late 1970s, Gates Sr. approached Bill, then a junior partner of the firm, with a request. As Bill later recounted: “He told me, ‘My son and his business partners are moving their business up here from New Mexico. I thought you could keep an eye on them.’” The son was Bill Gates Jr., and the business was Microsoft. Bill represented Microsoft as outside counsel starting in 1978, joined as General Counsel in 1985, and retired as Executive Vice President in 2002. During Bill’s tenure as Microsoft’s lead lawyer, the company successfully defeated an existential copyright claim in Apple v. Microsoft, with Apple alleging that it owned the “look and feel” of the graphical user interface for Windows. The company also successfully resolved the federal government’s antitrust lawsuit, US v. Microsoft, at the time the most-watched litigation in the world. Perhaps more so than any specific legal affair at Microsoft, Bill was especially grateful to manage the company’s community affairs, including corporate philanthropy, and to help gather and work alongside an exceptionally talented collection of lawyers.
After Microsoft, Bill returned to private practice and served as Chairman of Preston Gates & Ellis (now K&L Gates) from 2003-07. Those closest to Bill recognized that this homecoming was especially meaningful to him. Throughout his career, Bill was most “at home” within the camaraderie, mutual respect, and spirited intellectual debate of a law firm partnership.
Bill served as President of the American Bar Association in 2007-08, during which time he established the ABA’s Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) and organized an ABA members’ march in solidarity with embattled judges and lawyers in Pakistan. Previously, he chaired the Young Lawyers Division, served as Secretary, and represented Washington State in the House of Delegates. In 2020, he was awarded the ABA Medal for being “an international champion for justice who has devoted his life and career to public service, access to justice and advancing the rule of law.”
Bill relished a lifetime connection to San Francisco baseball. As a child growing up in San Mateom Park, he lived next door to Charlie Graham Jr., whose father owned the San Francisco Seals. Bill played catch in the street with Graham’s daughter, and was grateful to be her occasional guest at Seals games. When the Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958, Bill’s father gifted him ten shares in Horace Stoneham’s investment group for the ball club. Decades later, in 1993, Bill invested as a Limited Partner in the Giants ownership group. He became a General Partner in 2003, and in 2008 became the Managing General Partner and CEO. Bill was serving in that role during the 2010 season when the Giants brought home San Francisco’s first World Series championship and the first for the ball club since 1954.
To further justice and the rule of law, Bill founded the World Justice Project in 2006, and served as CEO until his passing. The WJP is a nonprofit organization, with offices in Washington DC, Singapore, and Mexico City, working to stimulate action to advance the rule of law worldwide. In 1995, Bill founded the Neukom Family Foundation with his four children, dedicated to funding education, the environment, health, human services, and justice. Over the last 30 years, the Neukom Family Foundation has funded organizations including Planned Parenthood, MSI (formerly Marie Stopes International), the National Women’s Law Center, Plymouth Housing Group, and the Innocence Project. As Bill wished, the Neukom Family Foundation will continue to support these priorities in years to come.
Bill was committed to higher education throughout his life. He served as a Trustee of Dartmouth College from 1996-2007 (Chair, 2004-07) and the University of Puget Sound from 1995-2006. He served on the Dean’s Council at Stanford Law School (Chair, 2012-15) and as a lecturer on the rule of law. Bill engaged higher education not only with his time, but also his resources—endowing academic centers, chairs and professorships, and scholarships for underrepresented students at Dartmouth College, Stanford Law School, the University of Puget Sound, and the University of Chicago. Bill received honorary degrees from Dartmouth College, Gonzaga University, the University of Puget Sound, and the University of South Carolina.
Bill’s family is proud of and grateful to him for the public legacy he created. But we are also heartbroken at the loss our of “Pops,” and in awe of the richness of life that he shared with us. He ran “sub-3-hour” marathons. In the 1970s, he ran for the Democratic Party nomination to be Attorney General for Washington State, and for years thereafter showed a mirthful sense of humor about his loss. He fly-fished around the world. He taught Sunday School at the First Congregational Church of Hanover, New Hampshire, as a young man. He curated an amazing art collection—never focused on brand names or pretense but instead on Pacific Northwest artists and supporting local gallery owners. He was 6’4” tall, always fit, with a glorious head of hair, and preternaturally dapper. He loved bebop jazz; made bow ties seem cool; and knew properly how to take a corner in a German sports car. He was mischievously good at dominos. He had strong opinions about the superiority of English Springer Spaniels. He was a skier and horseback rider. He could identify (a few) Burgundian wines by taste.
He was an average golfer but played quickly, with enthusiasm, and with impeccable on-course etiquette. He had a roaring laugh that brought the room with him, and not infrequently joyful tears to his own eyes.
For and with his family, Bill created inimitable experiences. He introduced his family to the San Juan Islands, and created on oasis there overlooking Haro Straight that will survive him for family generations to come. He traveled to see every child studying abroad—ascending (most of) Mount Kilimanjaro with Josselyn, touring the Uffizi with Samantha, hiking the Galápagos Islands with Gillian, and skiing the Mer de Glacé Chamonix with Jay.
Bill was a loving husband, father, and grandfather. The Neukom family will miss his him, his humor, his warmth, and his encouragement. In his final days, surrounded by his wife and children, Bill wanted to hear reports on every single grandchild.
Bill is survived by his loving wife of 29 years, Sally; his former wife (Diane McMakin) and their children Josselyn Neukom (Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam), Samantha Neukom (Seattle), Gillian Neukom Toledo (Seattle), and John (Jay) Neukom (San Francisco); their spouses Robert Toledo and Sandra Neukom; his grandchildren Brown, Jock, Minna, Margaret, Lillian, Riley, Adelaide, Leo, Beatrice, Flora, Maribel, Poppy, Willa, and William (West); and his brothers Davidson and Daniel. He is predeceased by his sister, Barbara Neukom Bohn.
