Jon Palmer didn’t expect to wind up the general counsel at Microsoft when he joined as senior attorney back in 2010. He hadn’t even expected to go in-house. But after decades as outside counsel the opportunity to work for his favorite client was too good to pass up.

“I was always super impressed by the litigators that I worked with there, how strategic they were, the role they played at the company and how thoughtful they were,” he said. “I loved being at law firms and I never really thought much about going in house, but because I knew the litigation group so well, it was really interesting and attractive. So that's why I made the jump.”