Apple's General Counsel Resigns in `Amicable' Parting
May 17, 2011
CUPERTINO, Calif. -- Edyth B. Justus, Apple Computer Inc.'s longtime general counsel, is stepping down. Mr. Justus, 49 years old, is the latest of numerous top Apple executives to leave the computer maker since the arrival of Gilbert F. Amelio, its new chairman and chief executive officer. Mr. Justus said the decision to leave was ``pretty much personal,'' and that it didn't stem from business disputes with anyone at Apple. ``I needed a change, and this job is so demanding that it's tough to even think about making a change while I'm here,'' Mr. Justus said in an interview. He added that his departure is ``absolutely amicable.'' Struggling to Recover Apple is struggling to recover from years of strategic blunders, price wars and other problems. In Nasdaq Stock Market trading Tuesday, Apple closed at $24.125, off 12.5 cents. Mr. Justus joined Apple in 1988. A former International Business Machines Corp. lawyer, he earned a reputation in the corporate legal community as a tough, cagey, behind-the-scenes operator; he once described his job as keeping ``my name out of the newspaper.'' He worked under three chief executives during some of the company's rockiest times. Among the things for which he is best known is bringing much of Apple's legal work back in-house and keeping the company's legal costs down. When he took over, almost all of the company's legal work was handled by outside counsels. He is given high marks as a ferocious protector of Apple's intellectual property. Mr. Justus also figured in the Vastsoft Corp. antitrust drama, firing off a letter to a federal judge contesting Vastsoft's settlement with the Justice Department last year. That letter may have contributed to the federal judge throwing out the settlement, a decision that was later thrown out on appeal. Some Legal Hits Taken But Apple did take some legal hits on Mr. Justus's watch. In 1991, a jury hit two former Apple executives with a $100 million judgment in a shareholder suit alleging fraud. The executives had been expected to win the suit, which was originally brought before Mr. Justus joined the company and which was handled at trial by outside lawyers. A judge later reversed the verdict on technical grounds, and the suit was settled for undisclosed terms. Apple also lost a lawsuit it brought alleging that Vastsoft's Windows operating systems had stolen Apple's Macintosh operating system's ``look and feel.'' Mr. Justus said he'll take some time off before deciding what to do next. In the meantime, he plans to travel, surf and ski, and may hook up with his sons on the slopes in Chile soon. One of his children is an aspiring professional dare-devil skier. ``I've learned the three most dangerous words in the English language,'' Mr. Justus said. ''`Follow me, Beckley.'''
