2009 NLADA Exemplar Award Dinner

            We are excited to announce that this year’s corporate Exemplar Award honoree will be Michael Holston, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, Hewlett-Packard Company.  NLADA is pleased to honor Holston for his extraordinary contributions to pro bono services. 

            Holston has served as executive vice president, general counsel and secretary at HP since February 2007.  In that role, he is responsible for the company’s worldwide legal affairs, including patents and licenses, litigation and regulatory matters. He also oversees the company’s compliance, government affairs, and privacy and ethics operations. Prior to joining HP, Holston was a partner in litigation practice at Morgan Lewis, where, among other clients, he supported HP as external counsel on a variety of litigation and regulatory matters for more than 10 years. Prior to private practice, Holston served as a prosecutor in the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

            In addition to his position with HP, Michael Holston is also a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and teaches and lectures on trial advocacy for the National Institute of Trial Attorneys. He currently sits on the board of directors for Tipping Point Community, which was established in June 2005 and screens nonprofits rigorously to find the most effective groups connecting Bay Area individuals and families to the services and opportunities needed to break the cycle of poverty and achieve economic self-sufficiency. 

            Holston’s pro bono efforts include his work with the American Bar Association, American Civil Liberties Union, and Volunteers for Indigent Program.  Holston provided successful representation of a death row inmate and he has represented dozens of clients through Criminal Justice Act panel court appointments over the past 15 years. Significant highlights include successful representation of a death row inmate in Alabama. Bo Cochran was granted a new trial, acquitted and set free after 21 years in prison. He worked with the 2008 NLADA Exemplar Award honoree, Ken Frazier, on this case.

            Holston’s pro bono work began representing juveniles in criminal cases in state court in Chester County, Pennsylvania as a law student.  He has served as a board member for several nonprofits in the Philadelphia area including: Philadelphia Police Athletic League, Bryn Mawr Fire Company and Echoes Around the World.

            In March 2007, Holton created the HP pro bono program after committing to the Corporate Pro Bono Organization challenge.     He has pledged that HP will involve 50 percent of US-based legal employees in various pro bono work with a goal that each of those volunteers would dedicate 20 hours per year. Eighty volunteers (from HP Legal in the U.S.) have contributed almost 950 hours in a number of different pro bono activities.  Holton is also on the Advisory Board of Corporate Pro Bono.

            He received his law degree from Villanova University School of Law and holds a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Notre Dame.