| |
Company type | Limited Liability Partnership |
---|---|
Industry | Law |
Founded | 1883 |
Defunct | 2007 (merged into K&L Gates) |
Headquarters | Seattle, Washington, U.S. |
Products | Legal services |
Website | www |
Preston Gates & Ellis, LLP, also known as Preston Gates, was a law firm with offices in the United States, China, and Taiwan. Its main office was in the IDX Tower in Seattle. In 2007, the firm merged with Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham to form K&L Gates. [1]
The "Gates" in the firm's name refers to William H. Gates Sr., father of Microsoft founder Bill Gates. [2] Gates retired from the firm in 1998.
In 1883, Harold Preston, born 1858 in Illinois, the son of Brig. Gen. Simon Manly Preston, arrived in Seattle and established his own law practice. [3] Together with O.B. Thorgrimson, an attorney originally from Chicago, Preston expanded the practice throughout the early 1900s.
In 1924, Roger Shidler and George Harroun established another law firm based in Washington state. William H. Gates Sr. joined the firm in 1964, and as principal counsel expanded the firm's clients to include high technology, manufacturing, distribution, service and other businesses.
In 1949, Jim Ellis joined the firm Preston, Thorgrimson & Horowitz, and was integral in involving the firm in public service projects for the city of Seattle, and opened the firm's Washington, D.C. office in 1973. Ellis eventually became a name partner in the firm, which was known in the 1980s as Preston Thorgrimson Ellis & Holman. [4]
In 1990, Shidler McBroom Gates and Lucas merged with Preston Thorgrimson Ellis & Holman to form Preston Thorgrimson Shidler Gates & Ellis, renamed in 1997 as Preston Gates & Ellis, LLP. [4]
The firm's Washington, D.C. office is known as Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds LLP. When it was opened in 1973, partners included Emanuel Rouvelas, former counsel to the Senate Commerce Committee, and former Congressman Lloyd Meeds (D-WA). [4] Among its major clients is Microsoft, which paid PGE over $1,380,000 for lobbying various federal government institutions. During that time, the chairman of the firm was William Neukom, who was employed by Microsoft as head of its legal department. [5]
William Henry Gates II, better known as Bill Gates Sr., was an American attorney, philanthropist, and civic leader. He was the founder of the law firm Shidler McBroom & Gates, and also served as president of both the Seattle King County and Washington State Bar associations. He was the father of Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft.
Edwin Lloyd Meeds was an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1965 to 1979. He represented the second district of Washington as a Democrat.
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K&L Gates LLP is an American multinational corporation law firm based in the United States, with international offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. Its namesake firms are Kirkpatrick & Lockhart, a Pittsburgh-based firm founded as Kirkpatrick, Pomeroy, Lockhart & Johnson in 1946, and Preston Gates & Ellis, a Seattle firm founded in 1883 whose prominent partners included William H. Gates Sr., the attorney, philanthropist, and father of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Kirkpatrick & Lockhart merged with Preston Gates in 2007 to form K&L Gates, LLP.
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