Seattle legal mind William Neukom to take reins of Giants

The new front man of the San Francisco Giants is a Seattle Mariners season-ticket holder, a partner in the prestigious Seattle law firm of Kirkpatrick and Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis, was in the wedding of Mariners' president Chuck Armstrong, and made his fortune as the longtime head of legal affairs for Microsoft.

So why is William Neukom, who has resided in Seattle for the past 40 years, about to replace Peter Magowan as managing general partner of the Giants?

More than anything, it's roots. Anyone who ever fell in love with their childhood team will understand.

Neukom may be a transplanted Northwesterner, but he's Bay Area born and bred, and it's Giants' black and orange that courses through his veins.

This is a guy who grew up in San Mateo, attended law school at Stanford (with Armstrong), suffered through many a frigid night at Candlestick Park, and never quite got over the Giants' agonizing seven-game losses in the 1962 and 2002 World Series.

So when Neukom had a chance to buy into a baseball team — which is the happy circumstance that befalls one who got in Microsoft at the ground floor, helping the 66-year-old Neukom accumulate an estimated stake of $107 million when he left the company in 2001 — it was the Giants, and not the Mariners.

"I did think about it," Neukom said of the call for investors that accompanied the local bid to save the Mariners for Seattle in 1992.

In the end, Nintendo chairman Hiroshi Yamauchi ended up fronting a consortium of local businessmen, including some of Neukom's Microsoft colleagues. He could have joined them, but passed.

"At the end of the day, I was a little too busy at the office then," Neukom said. "And, frankly, I still had a little bit of the home team feeling of the Giants... It's hard to shake those emotions."

In 1995, Neukom contacted Magowan — who had saved the Giants from moving to Tampa Bay by heading a Bay Area ownership group in 1992 — and became part of the Giants' investment group.

Neukom became a Giants general partner in 2003 after increasing his stake in the team. Last week, when Magowan announced his pending retirement as managing general partner at the end of the season, Neukom was introduced as his successor, effective Oct. 1.

His ownership stake will rise again, but not as much as his public profile. Neukom is well-aware of what Howard Lincoln learned when he left Nintendo to become the Mariners' chairman and CEO in 1999: That his life of relative anonymity is about to end.

Neukom has had more than a measure of public acclaim in his career. He made an unsuccessful bid to become the Democratic nominee for attorney general in 1980, led Microsoft's successful legal victory over Apple in 1994 in what became known as "the look and feel" case, was Microsoft's lead attorney during the government's antitrust case against the company in 1998, and is currently president of the American Bar Association.

But just wait until the Giants make their first bad trade or rotten free-agent signing. Neukom knows he'll bear the brunt of the criticism. Indeed, the era of accountability has already begun since he was introduced last week.

"I've already seen some of the blogs," Neukom said. "People are jumping to unjustified conclusions based on the wrong information. I'm sure there will be criticism, some deserved, some not.

"It comes with the job, and I'm prepared to take criticism and deflect credit. The Giants become successful, it will not be because of me, as much as a strong baseball group."

Neukom readily admits his managerial style was forged during his 24-year stint with Microsoft. His introduction to the company was pure serendipity. After getting his law degree from Stanford, Neukom landed in Seattle for a clerkship, caught the eye of William Gates Sr., and was offered an invitation to join Gates' firm.

One of his early assignments from Gates was to help his son, who had started a computer software business in Albuquerque, negotiate a lease for their new office in Seattle in 1979.

And from that introduction to Bill Gates, Paul Allen and the fledgling Microsoft crew, Neukom joined the company full-time in 1985. He eventually headed a staff of 350, including more than 100 attorneys.

"I count my blessings for the time I was able to spend representing Microsoft," he said. "There are things to transfer to baseball. Microsoft had a strong sense of meritocracy. It was not about labels; it was about doing good, smart work for the customers. That's going to be one of the themes of my stewardship of the Giants."

It is a job that will cause him to relinquish his full-time partnership at K&L Gates and take up indefinite residence in San Francisco. That's not easy, considering that his family has put down strong roots in the Seattle area.

"I think I've got to spend full time on this," he said. "I owe that to the team. Starting Oct. 1, I'll be down there for as much time as it takes. If it takes six days a week, I'll do six days a week.

"That said, my family is up here, including my grandchildren. This is my home base, and I expect it to continue to be my primary residence. It's a little bit of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

"But I'm trying to be very clear with the fan base, team and press: I'll spend whatever time and energy it takes to do the best job I can. No compromises. I'm not a caretaker, and I'm not going to do it nonchalantly or remotely. I'll be an active CEO, because that's what it takes."

Larry Stone: 206-464-3146 or lstone@seattletimes.com

Information in this article, originally published May 22, 2008, was corrected on the same day. In the initial version of this column, Neukom was mistakenly identified as the Democratic nominee for Washington's attorney general in 1980. Neukom lead an unsuccessful bid to become the nominee.