Disabled businessman discussing work with colleague in office.

Beyond Microsoft: Addressing the pipeline

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion includes leveraging our unique position of influence to drive greater measurable diversity in the legal profession worldwide. That begins by better understanding the barriers that prevent women, minority, LGBT, and people with disabilities from applying to and completing law school, so we can create effective solutions and support systems to improve the pipeline of diverse legal talent. It also includes engaging with organizations across the world that are working to improve and support diversity in the legal profession.

Our programs and commitments

Investment

Microsoft is a proud supporter of and participant in the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) and their programs designed to attract, inspire, and nurture talent to create a new and more diverse generation of attorneys.

Scholarships

Research indicates that pipeline issues do not stop at admissions to law school. So we’ve developed a program in Washington state, the Gregoire Fellows, aimed at improving retention of diverse students. The program provides students with the tools and resources needed to successfully enter the legal profession. We also fund law school scholarships through the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) and programs to prepare diverse students for law school through the Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO).

Research

In 2013, Microsoft funded a study entitled ‘Raising the Bar’ that took a detailed look at the diversity gap between the legal profession and other professions with similar education or licensing requirements. The study found that we are losing many professionals before they begin their career. This research has helped shape our approach to the programs we offer to address pipeline issues.

We also commissioned a study in 2015 to better support disability diversity in the legal profession. The research indicates that despite the prevalence of disability in the general population, people with disabilities are among the most underrepresented in the legal field.

We supported a first-of-its-kind study by the National Native American Bar Association in 2015 to understand the issues confronting Native American attorneys across all settings. The research reveals the importance of extending diversity and inclusion efforts to reach Native American attorneys, who are substantially underrepresented in the profession, often feel invisible, and share an overarching perspective that their experiences are not valid or real.