Stephen C. Neal is Chairman of Cooley and a member of the Firm's Management Committee. He is resident in the Palo Alto office.

Summary of Professional Activities

Mr. Neal's practice includes a variety of litigation, negotiation and counseling services. He has tried dozens of civil and criminal cases, jury and non-jury, in federal, state and administrative courts throughout the United States. Mr. Neal has represented numerous corporations and individuals in a wide range of civil and criminal investigations, and he has represented and advised audit committees and special committees of boards in numerous internal investigations.

Mr. Neal's practice has covered numerous substantive areas of the law, including securities law, insurance law, commercial contracts, government contracts, construction contracts, tax disputes, antitrust and trade regulation, trade secrets, patents, copyrights, unfair competition, employment contracts, product defects, Magnuson-Moss Act, toxic substances, Food and Drug Act, Consumer Product Safety Act, National Highway Transportation Safety Act, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Foreign Currency Laws, I.C.C. tariff regulations, federal income tax law, state and local taxing authority, water law, mining law and regulations, banking law and bank fraud.

Highlights of Professional Experience

Litigation

Mr. Neal has tried over 30 jury and non-jury cases to verdict as lead trial counsel. He has conducted dozens of other contested evidentiary and non-evidentiary hearings on dispositive issues and argued over 20 appeals in various federal and state courts around the country.

Mr. Neal has represented and advised numerous boards of directors, special committees of boards and individual directors on corporate governance, fiduciary duties and conflict of interest matters. His clients have included General Motors and its board in the Ross Perot disputes, USG and Santa Fe Boards in hostile takeover situations, PacifiCare Health Systems in dealing with a large minority shareholder and in various transactional matters, NVIDIA and its board in various governance matters, Walter Hewlett and the Hewlett Trust in the HP/Compaq situation.

He has conducted special investigations for management and special committees of directors, committees of independent directors and audit committees of publicly held companies in areas of improper payments, bribery/extortion, defective products, currency violations and attorney malpractice. For the most part, the identity of clients remains confidential, however additional information can be provided on request.

Mr. Neal has handled confidential and public SEC investigations on behalf of various corporations and individuals. Some of the individuals and clients are among those identified above. Others remain confidential.

Grand Jury Investigations

Mr. Neal has represented individual and company targets and subjects involved in numerous grand jury investigations in areas of securities fraud, bribery and extortion, obstruction of justice and antitrust.

General Advice

Mr. Neal has provided many clients with ongoing non-litigation advice in various areas discussed above.

Prior to joining Cooley in 1995, Mr. Neal was a partner and a member of the Management Committee at Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Mr. Neal received a JD from Stanford University 1973 and an AB from Harvard University in 1970.