SAN FRANCISCO -- As Microsoft nears a conclusion to its long-fought antitrust battle with the U.S. government, the company announced Wednesday that its top legal adviser, Bill Neukom, will retire from his duties at the end of the fiscal year in mid-2002.

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Brad Smith, who has served five years as Microsoft's deputy general counsel for worldwide sales, focusing mainly on the company's legal efforts to reduce software piracy, will succeed Neukom, the company said in a statement.

Neukom has spent the last 22 years at Microsoft heading up its legal team. Most recently, Neukom led the company's efforts to reach a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice and nine of the 18 states suing Microsoft. He also helped draft a settlement announced Tuesday that would end more than 100 class action lawsuits related to alleged overpricing on Microsoft's part.

During his tenure, Neukom brought an end to Microsoft's seven-year legal dispute with Apple Computer over intellectual property rights and also helped to come up with the 1994 consent decree that brought to a close early antitrust complaints brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the Justice Department, and the European Union.

Neukom has also stood watch over legal disputes with Sun Microsystems over the use of the Java programming language, a patent dispute with Priceline, and a private antitrust case with Bristol Technology.

Smith, who in addition to managing anti-piracy efforts heads up all of Microsoft's competition law, litigation, and government affairs work outside the United States, will take over Neukom's day-to-day management duties in early 2002, Microsoft said. He will take over officially at the end of the company's fiscal year on June 30, 2002. Neukom will stay on to assist with the transition until July.