EX-CAIRO MAN LAWYER IN MICROSOFT ANTITRUST TRIAL

CAIRO, Ill. -- A former Cairo resident, John Warden, is lead attorney for William Gates and his company, Microsoft Corp., in the antitrust lawsuit brought against the company by the federal government.

Warden, of New York's Sullivan and Cromwell law firm, is representing Microsoft at the trial that began Monday in Washington.

A few Cairo residents are watching the trial with interest.

"I don't have a computer, but I'll certainly keep up with what's going on," said Margaret Haslauer of Cairo. She is a friend of Warden and his wife, Phillis, who live in Bedford, N.Y.

"I'd love to be at the trial," said Haslauer. "My granddaughter, who is a friend of the Wardens, is hopeful of a seat for the trial."

Also keeping up with the happenings will be Nancy Clutts Wright, who attended Cairo High School with Warden.

"We were friends," said Wright, advertising director if the Cairo Citizen newspaper and a member of the Cairo City Council. "I remember he was very intelligent. He graduated in three years."

Warden, who was born in Evansville, Ind., and moved with his family to Cairo at an early age, is a graduate of Cairo High School.

One of Warden's teachers described him as a "bright student." He graduated from Cairo High in 1958 and was accepted to Harvard following his junior year at Cairo. Following graduation at Harvard, he went on to graduate from the University of Virginia Law School.

Warden is the son of Walt and Juanita Warden, who operated Warden Ford Co. at Cairo a number of years. Warden's parents now live in Naples, Fla.

Haslauer was a friend of Warden's parents and has visited the younger Wardens on occasion.

Warden is married to a former Cairoite, Phillis Rodgers, whose parents Carson and Helen Rodgers owned the Rodgers Movie Chain, with theaters from Illinois to Florida. The Wardens are parents of three children and have four grandchildren. John Warden sold parts at his father's auto dealership while he attended high school.

The Wall Street Journal said the trial promises plenty of drama, referring to the "star power" of Warden and David Boies, lead attorney for the government.

Warden is described as a veteran litigator. He has been with the Sullivan and Cromwell firm for more than 30 years, having joined the firm after graduation from the University of Virginia.

Boies, a native of Marengo, Ill., successfully defended International Business Machines Corp., in the government's last great antitrust showdown.

The Microsoft trial, considered a landmark antitrust trial, could last up to six months.

The government seeks to portray Microsoft as an aggressive predator that jealously and illegally protects its dominance in the technology industry. The trial is shaping up as one of the most important involving business in this century, and its outcome could dramatically change how people use and buy software.

Microsoft, meanwhile, portrayed itself Tuesday as an aggressive but legal competitor when it entered the market for Internet software then dominated by rival Netscape Communications Corp.

Warden Tuesday argued that "antitrust laws are not a code of civility" and the company's efforts to gain a foothold in the competitive market for Internet software were all legal.

"Netscape had what the government would consider a monopoly in the market for Internet browsers, until the great Satan, Microsoft, came along," Warden said.

Earlier in his career Warden helped reverse a huge jury verdict against client Eastman Kodak Co. Another big case for Warden came when he won reversals of the mail-fraud conviction of Armand D'Amato, Sen. Alfonse D'Amato's brother.