Earlier this fall Microsoft hosted a Summit for Women and Minority Law Students on careers in intellectual property practice areas. The Summit included a panel discussion with women and diverse attorneys who represent Microsoft in various capacities, a report from Microsoft's deputy general counsel on Microsoft's internal diversity program and ongoing commitment to the corporate Call to Action to diversify outside legal representation.

Most impressive fact: Microsoft Legal & Corporate Affairs's executive's bonuses are tied to their outside counsel meeting diversity goals. And last year? Outside counsel failed to meet those goals and bonuses were reduced as promised. That's called putting your money where you mouth is. 

Impressive in the abstract and in this economy in particular. Here were Microsoft and a number of prominent firm sponsors making a full recruitment effort in a style that felt much more 2006 than 2009. There were patent litigators, patent prosecutors, an attorney who represents the Recording Industry Association of America going after copyright inf ringers, and a number of women and diverse lawyers from within Microsoft's legal department.  Students from around the country were in attendance. 

The event was a success. Thought provoking and good PR for everyone involved. A couple notes:

• There was little to no discussion of sexual orientation minorities or lawyers with disabilities. Not unusual formany diversity roundtables but something we all need to continue to emphasize.
• The representative from the event's primary sponsor Munger, Tolles & Olson detailed a number of that firms diversity programs. All interesting and promising. What was remarkable about his presentation is that he failed to mention MTO's new day care center - the first of its kind on this coast and, I would think, an amazing asset to the firm in recruiting women.
• This didn't come up, but I walked away thinking about how, in the wake of prohibitions and limitations on efforts to diversify law school classes with affirmative action, schools increasingly rely on specialy programs to recruit minority students. I went to UCLA and it was my impression that the school used it's critical race studies and public interest programs to identify applicants of minority racial backgrounds. I think relying on these methods to create a diverse student body further diminishes the chance that schools like UCLA will produce a pool of diverse attorneys ready to enter fields like those discussed at the IP Summit