A few weeks ago I found myself at the New Delhi airport catching an early morning flight to Hyderabad, one of India's leading technology centers. It was 5 a.m. Friday in India, which meant it was 4:30 p.m. Thursday on the West Coast in the U.S. I was keeping one eye on the departure gate while completing calls on my cell phone to colleagues back home. Although everyone says the world is becoming flatter, multiple time zones and jet lag will always remain realities of business travel.

Just a few hours later, however, the world indeed felt flat when I met with students at one of India's leading law schools. Their questions focused on litigation in Europe, legislation in the U.S. and the legal challenges facing the surging technology market in India itself. Their energy and enthusiasm was palpable. Thanks in part to advances created by the Internet, their generation will help shape not only the law in India, but also their country's expanding connection with the rest of the global economy.

Their work in the future also will be important to our role as lawyers in the U.S. Gone are the days when I was a law student in the early 1980s, when international legal issues were regarded as a discrete field. As our companies do business across borders, there is an international aspect to almost every legal field.

In one sense a borderless perspective is a natural progression of the legal profession. We started our careers with a license to practice in a single state, but it was clear that our work didn't end simply because a product crossed state lines. Our law libraries had cases from throughout the country, and we turned to them to understand decisions across the nation. After all, even though courts in one state weren't bound by rulings in another, most judges were interested in understanding broader trends before making up their own minds.

In this context, it's not surprising that courts in the U.S. are referring more frequently to international judicial decisions. This doesn't mean our judges are surrendering the nation's sovereignty. It's instead a reflection of the growth in global commerce and the opportunity to learn from others' experiences before deciding what lessons we want to apply to ourselves.

In other respects, however, internationalization is stretching us in new ways. Companies increasingly find themselves addressing the same legal and regulatory issues in multiple countries simultaneously. A day at the office can start with a call to lawyers in Europe and end with a conversation with lawyers in Asia.

The ability to think globally is rapidly becoming a core competency for successful in-house counsel. It requires that we better understand the legal and regulatory traditions in other countries, as well as differences in business culture and politics.

The flattened world also creates new opportunities and challenges for the management of legal departments. Our employees are located around the world and reflect multiple nationalities, cultures and languages. We have the opportunity to work as a team, learn from each other and build on each other's strengths. But like all diversity efforts, teamwork requires planning and resources.

Ultimately the work we do to address international issues will shape not only the companies and industries in which we work, but the future of legal interaction across borders. International regulatory coordination is still at an early stage. The issues on which we work will set the precedents that will help shape the decades that follow.

As professionals in the best sense of the word, we have the opportunity to think not only about the interests of our clients, but also the broader public good. If we do that well, we'll make a contribution that will serve future lawyers both at home and abroad.

Brad Smith is the senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Microsoft Corp. He also serves as the company's chief compliance officer.

A few weeks ago I found myself at the New Delhi airport catching an early morning flight to Hyderabad, one of India's leading technology centers. It was 5 a.m. Friday in India, which meant it was 4:30 p.m. Thursday on the West Coast in the U.S. I was keeping one eye on the departure gate while completing calls on my cell phone to colleagues back home. Although everyone says the world is becoming flatter, multiple time zones and jet lag will always remain realities of business travel.

Just a few hours later, however, the world indeed felt flat when I met with students at one of India's leading law schools. Their questions focused on litigation in Europe, legislation in the U.S. and the legal challenges facing the surging technology market in India itself. Their energy and enthusiasm was palpable. Thanks in part to advances created by the Internet, their generation will help shape not only the law in India, but also their country's expanding connection with the rest of the global economy.

Their work in the future also will be important to our role as lawyers in the U.S. Gone are the days when I was a law student in the early 1980s, when international legal issues were regarded as a discrete field. As our companies do business across borders, there is an international aspect to almost every legal field.

In one sense a borderless perspective is a natural progression of the legal profession. We started our careers with a license to practice in a single state, but it was clear that our work didn't end simply because a product crossed state lines. Our law libraries had cases from throughout the country, and we turned to them to understand decisions across the nation. After all, even though courts in one state weren't bound by rulings in another, most judges were interested in understanding broader trends before making up their own minds.

In this context, it's not surprising that courts in the U.S. are referring more frequently to international judicial decisions. This doesn't mean our judges are surrendering the nation's sovereignty. It's instead a reflection of the growth in global commerce and the opportunity to learn from others' experiences before deciding what lessons we want to apply to ourselves.

In other respects, however, internationalization is stretching us in new ways. Companies increasingly find themselves addressing the same legal and regulatory issues in multiple countries simultaneously. A day at the office can start with a call to lawyers in Europe and end with a conversation with lawyers in Asia.

The ability to think globally is rapidly becoming a core competency for successful in-house counsel. It requires that we better understand the legal and regulatory traditions in other countries, as well as differences in business culture and politics.

The flattened world also creates new opportunities and challenges for the management of legal departments. Our employees are located around the world and reflect multiple nationalities, cultures and languages. We have the opportunity to work as a team, learn from each other and build on each other's strengths. But like all diversity efforts, teamwork requires planning and resources.

Ultimately the work we do to address international issues will shape not only the companies and industries in which we work, but the future of legal interaction across borders. International regulatory coordination is still at an early stage. The issues on which we work will set the precedents that will help shape the decades that follow.

As professionals in the best sense of the word, we have the opportunity to think not only about the interests of our clients, but also the broader public good. If we do that well, we'll make a contribution that will serve future lawyers both at home and abroad.

Brad Smith is the senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Microsoft Corp. He also serves as the company's chief compliance officer.