"Associates Spend a Day at Microsoft," Diversity & Inclusion Report

One of the highlights of the summer associate experience at DWT is the chance to spend a day at Microsoft’s Redmond campus and hear a panel of in-house Microsoft lawyers discuss their work. The annual event, which is open to summer associates from Microsoft’s Premier Preferred Provider firms, is intended to build the pipeline of young lawyers—especially diverse lawyers—interested in intellectual property, says Dan Waggoner, DWT’s relationship attorney for Microsoft. Girmay Zahilay, a student at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and a recipient of Davis Wright Tremaine’s 2012 1L Diversity Scholarship, says he found the day highly valuable as a window into the thinking of Microsoft attorneys. “Just to get to know their legal department and how they choose to delegate work was useful,” says Zahilay. “Also to learn what we can do during non-billable hours that would allow us to serve them better—namely, get to know their industry. They don’t want us to look at projects as isolated assignments, but as part of the company’s larger objectives.”

Read full 2013 Diversity & Inclusion Report