Apple's General Counsel to Retire
October 06 2017 - 1:16PM
Dow Jones News
By Cara Lombardo
Apple Inc.'s general counsel, who maintained a low profile
before a debate over the balance of privacy and national security
thrust him into the national spotlight last year, is retiring.
Bruce Sewell will leave the technology company at the end of the
year after holding the role since 2009, Apple said Friday. Mr.
Sewell testified before a House of Representatives committee in
March 2016 to defend Apple's refusal to unlock a smartphone
belonging to a shooter in the deadly San Bernardino, Calif.,
attack.
Katherine Adams, who was previously Honeywell International
Inc.'s top lawyer, will be Apple's new general counsel and senior
vice president of legal and global security, the company said. Ms.
Adams, 53 years old, will report to Chief Executive Tim Cook.
Ms. Adams's last day at Honeywell will be Oct. 27. Anne Madden,
Honeywell's vice president of corporate development, will take over
as general counsel at the manufacturing firm, a company spokeswoman
said.
"We are thrilled to welcome Kate to our team," Mr. Cook said in
prepared remarks. "She's a seasoned leader with outstanding
judgment that has worked on a wide variety of legal cases
globally."
During his tenure as Apple's general counsel, Mr. Sewell oversaw
major patent disputes with Samsung Electronics Co. and battled the
U.S. government in an antitrust case involving the pricing of
e-books. Executives who worked with him have said he has a close
relationship with Mr. Cook and sat in nearly all high-level Apple
meetings.
"He has tirelessly defended our IP, our customers' right to
privacy and our values," Mr. Cook said of Mr. Sewell.
When testifying before Congress last year, Mr. Sewell argued
that forcing Apple to circumvent its security measures, which he
helped shape, would set a dangerous precedent. Federal prosecutors
later dropped the case when it found another way to unlock the
phone of Syed Rizwan Farook, who with his wife killed 14
people.
As Mr. Sewell's replacement, Ms. Adams will inherit a fight with
Qualcomm Inc. over its patent-licensing practices. Apple sued
Qualcomm in January in a California federal court, alleging the
leading supplier of smartphone chips demanded unfair terms for its
technology. Apple later filed suits in several overseas markets,
including the U.K., China, Japan and Taiwan.
Before joining Honeywell in 2003, Ms. Adams was a partner at
Sidley Austin LLP in New York, according to Apple, and earlier in
her career clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
also worked as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice.
She earned her law degree from the University of Chicago Law
School.
Write to Cara Lombardo at cara.lombardo@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 06, 2017 14:01 ET (18:01 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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