Neukom, 60, began handling Microsoft’s legal issues in 1979, as a partner in a Seattle-based law firm led by Bill Gates Jr., the father of a young software entrepreneur named Bill Gates III.

Bill Neukom (L), managing general partner and chief executive officer of the Giants, and Larry Baer (R), new Giants president, in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, October 7, 2008.

Bill Neukom made a valiant attempt Thursday to cast himself as a man walking away on his own, rather than one who had been cast out as the Giants’ boss. Team president Larry Baer, Neukom’s ...

William “Bill” Neukom, Microsoft’s longtime legal chief, who led the company through its IPO and landmark antitrust case while helping shape modern tech law, has died at 83.