Bradford L. Smith
General Counsel
Founded in 1975, Microsoft is a worldwide leader in software, services, and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft’s popular products include programs such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Windows operating system, MSN, and entertainment products such as Xbox, Windows XP Media Center, and Microsoft TV. Combined, Microsoft’s products and services gave the company total revenues of $39.8 billion in fiscal year 2005, an eight percent increase from 2004.
(L to R): Larry P. Tu, Dell, Inc.; Mary Snapp accepting award on behalf of Microsoft Corporation; and Veta Richardson, MCCA
Microsoft defines diversity broadly, extending beyond race, national origin, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression, and instead looks at all the ways in which people differ. Its Legal and Corporate Affairs Department is a model throughout the company. General Counsel and Senior Vice President Bradford L. Smith leads a team in which diversity starts at the top: Four of the eight vice presidents in the legal department are women. Among all of the people hired into the legal department in Microsoft’s most recent fiscal year, 48 percent were women and 17 percent were minorities.
“We believe diversity enriches our performance and products, the communities in which we live and work, and the lives of our employees,” says Smith. “We recognize diversity as a core value, business imperative, and an investment in our people.”
Inclusion underlies all of the law department’s practices. To expand the recruiting pool, it forged relationships with minority bar organizations, such as the Hispanic National Bar Association, the Corporate Counsel Women of Color, and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. To retain its valuable talent, Microsoft’s year-round Legal Academy offers training on core skills for all of its legal professionals.
Microsoft is committed to building a pipeline for an ongoing, qualified, diverse legal workforce. It has committed $270,000 to the MCCA® Lloyd M. Johnson, Jr. Scholarship Fund, the largest donation to date. The law department initiated a summer intern program, which brought in five diverse first-year law students, and it has been instrumental in establishing the Law Student Intellectual Property Summit, designed to increase the representation of women and minorities seeking careers in intellectual property law. Locally, the department plays a significant role in the Seattle-based Future of the Law Institute, introducing students to the law and providing information and resources on how to get from high school to law school.
Microsoft has received numerous honors for its diversity efforts. For example, in 2005, it was ranked 57th on the “100 Best Places to Work in America” list sponsored by the Great Place to Work Institute and also made Hispanic Magazine’s “Hispanic Corporate 100” list. In previous years, Microsoft received the “New Freedom Initiative” Award from the U.S. Department of Labor, the “Annual Global Diversity” Award for Diverse Supply Chains from Dialogue on Diversity, a nonprofit educational organization targeted toward entrepreneurial women, and was named one of the “Top 100 Companies for Working Mothers” by Working Mother magazine. Microsoft’s diversity efforts have also been recognized internationally.
From the November/December 2005 issue of Diversity & The Bar®