Microsoft Seeks Diversity in Its Outside Counsel
The company provides strong financial incentives for its outside firms to staff its matters with minority lawyers.
October 01, 2018 at 07:00 AM
3 minute read
In the past ten years, the number of hours worked by diverse lawyers on Microsoft Corp. matters has increased by more than 20 percent. That's not by coincidence, says Dev Stahlkopf, the Redmond, Washington-based company's corporate vice president and general counsel. It is, at least in part, the result of Microsoft's Law Firm Diversity Program, which began back in 2008.
While diversity isn't the only factor the tech company takes into account when choosing outside counsel—experience and subject matter expertise are important, too—firms' hiring and inclusion of women, people of color and LGBT-identified lawyers is a priority.
“Studies show that diverse teams work more effectively and produce better results, and we think that's the case when we think about outside counsel as well,” Stahlkopf says. “And it's really important for us that our employees and the people who do work on our behalf reflect the full diversity of our global customer base.”
When it comes to Microsoft's strategic partner program, which includes just over a dozen firms, Stahlkopf notes that the company takes diversity numbers into account and works to ensure their numbers are improving.
And Microsoft has provided major incentives. All of the firms can receive bonuses of up to two percent of the firm's legal fees for services performed for Microsoft if they reach specified diversity goals. They include hitting specific numbers of diverse lawyers both working on Microsoft matters and managing the company's relationship with the firm. As of 2015, Microsoft has also looked at the number of diverse attorneys employed at the partner level firm-wide as a factor when determining whether bonuses are given, and what size those bonuses will be.
Stahlkopf says that more than 80 percent of the firms are now earning a bonus annually. And so far, she adds, none of the firms have been cut for lack of effort. “What we have actually found is [that] firms have been eager to jump on board and work on this issue with us,” she says.
This year, the firms in Microsoft's strategic partnership program are Arent Fox; Covington & Burling; Davis Wright Tremaine; Fish & Richardson; Greenberg Traurig; K&L Gates; Latham & Watkins; Merchant & Gould; Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Perkins Coie; Sidley Austin; and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
Of those firms, Orrick earned recognition from Microsoft as the program's top diversity performer in both 2017 and 2016. “We have recognized them [for] a couple of years,” Stahlkopf says. “I think our relationship with them is very strong and it's been great to see them as a partner in diversity.”
Outside of the 13 partner firms, Microsoft has made efforts to hire outside counsel from women- and minority-owned firms, with a target goal of directing at least 7 percent of legal spend there.
Since 2010, the company has spent more than $100 million total on these types of firms, including Snodgrass Annand, Peregrine Law Group and Ragen Swan. “Those firms tend to be really great value firms as well,” Stahlkopf says, “so it's a win-win from a business perspective across the board.”
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View All'The Unheard of Superpower': How Women's Soft Skills Can Drive Success in Negotiations
Tales From the Trenches: What Outside Counsel Do That GCs Find Inexcusable
Venus Williams Tells WIPL Crowd: 'Living Your Dreams Should Be Easy'
The 2024 WIPL Awards: Law Firm Mentor and Mentee Collaboration
Trending Stories
- 1Gibson Dunn Sued By Crypto Client After Lateral Hire Causes Conflict of Interest
- 2Trump's Solicitor General Expected to 'Flip' Prelogar's Positions at Supreme Court
- 3Pharmacy Lawyers See Promise in NY Regulator's Curbs on PBM Industry
- 4Outgoing USPTO Director Kathi Vidal: ‘We All Want the Country to Be in a Better Place’
- 5Supreme Court Will Review Constitutionality Of FCC's Universal Service Fund
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250