David Howard, Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Litigation Group
Microsoft
David Howard is corporate vice President and deputy general counsel for litigation in Microsoft Corp.’s Law and Corporate Affairs Department. He manages all of the company’s U.S. litigation issues, coordinates international cases and directs the work of outside law firms retained by Microsoft to represent it in lawsuits.
Formerly, Howard was a litigation partner at Dechert LLP, where he was based in the firm’s Philadelphia office. He co-chaired the firm’s white collar and securities litigation group, which included over 130 lawyers located in 11 offices in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Howard’s own practice has focused on complex civil and government enforcement cases. He has over 25 years of litigation experience, spanning work in the White House, as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, and in private practice. Howard is an experienced trial lawyer who has represented plaintiffs and defendants in both civil and criminal proceedings. He also has argued many times before the U.S. Courts of Appeals. Howard has also worked extensively in the area of corporate compliance and corporate internal investigations. He has been repeatedly recognized as one of the leaders in his field by such legal ranking services as Chambers USA, Legal 500, Best Lawyers in America, and Benchmark Litigation, and was recently named a “Top Gun’ in the corporate compliance area by Ethisphere Magazine.
Howard served in a number of important leadership and management positions at Dechert. He oversaw the firm’s commercial litigation and international arbitration and litigation practices, in addition to its white collar and securities litigation practices. He served as a member of the firm’s operating committee, which is responsible for the firm’s financial performance and attorney management and development initiatives. He also previously co-chaired Dechert’s firm-wide hiring committee, including overseeing its recruiting staff.
Howard attended Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. After clerking for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, he became an associate in Dechert’s litigation department. He left that position to join the legal team in the office of the White House Counsel advising President Ronald Reagan in connection with the Iran/Contra hearings. In 1987, he joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where he prosecuted some of the most significant and complex cases brought by the government in the District. He also served as coordinator of the District’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Unit before rejoining the Dechert firm.
