810 Lawyers
Check this out -- Sitting
down with Microsoft lawyer, er, professional pessimist. Robert
Scoble
talks to one of the 810 Microsoft lawyers in a
Channel 9 interview. No, that's not a typo. 810. That's a lot of
lawyers. A couple of years ago, I wouldn't
have even noticed the interview, but right now it jumps right out at
me. I'm not that involved with legal stuff at Sun, but because of
blogging and OpenSolaris I've bumped into a few here and
there. Interesting characters. Earlier in my career, I had more
experience with lawyers (real estate, construction, unions, politics),
but these days I'm basically lawyer free.
So, anyway, Scoble interviews MS lawyer Don McGowan, and this is the first quote of substance I noticed: "Microsoft is an intellectual property company more than pretty much any other company in the world. Without laws to protect IP, we're nothing. So, we have to have a lot of people in place who can take care of that as much as we can." I think IBM could quibble with that statement considering their patent portfolio, and I think Sun is an intellectual property company, too. Maybe we're not as big as MS, but we certainly have a lot of IP going on around here. I just thought the "Without ... we're nothing" bit was interesting. It just seems like such a final position to take.
Then they went on to talk about lawyers, patents, copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks, blogging, product naming, branding, NDAs, being evil (sometimes they are; sometimes they are not), and the value of professional pessimism. The pessimism part was pretty funny. But I loved the conversation about blogging best and how bloggers sometimes give lawyers fits when they blend their core job with their personal opinion -- sliding back and forth between being an official spokesperson and a private individual commenting publically about work-related matters. This can sometimes give the legal types hives if people go too far, McGowan said, although he certainly supports Microsoft's blogging strategy. I think our lawyers would probably agree. I mix personal and work opinions all the time, but I try to follow the founding principle of Sun blogging: "Don't be stupid."
The interview ended on a bit of a downer -- if you are a lawyer, anyway -- but I appreciated the honesty. When Scoble asked something like what advice McGowan had for people out there, McGowan said, "Don't go to law school." After some laughing, he continued. "People think we're kidding ... there's a reason a lot of lawyers want to get out. It can really be a ... not fun gig sometimes. We're always taught that there are two sides to a story. Sometimes there's not. Sometimes there's only one side. And when you go out to find the other side, it can lead to some very interesting and strange places."
Interesting and strange places, indeed. I'm not nearly as critical of lawyers as some of my friends are. I've been in a few of those "interesting and strange places" before, and I always appreciated having someone advocating for me.
So, anyway, Scoble interviews MS lawyer Don McGowan, and this is the first quote of substance I noticed: "Microsoft is an intellectual property company more than pretty much any other company in the world. Without laws to protect IP, we're nothing. So, we have to have a lot of people in place who can take care of that as much as we can." I think IBM could quibble with that statement considering their patent portfolio, and I think Sun is an intellectual property company, too. Maybe we're not as big as MS, but we certainly have a lot of IP going on around here. I just thought the "Without ... we're nothing" bit was interesting. It just seems like such a final position to take.
Then they went on to talk about lawyers, patents, copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks, blogging, product naming, branding, NDAs, being evil (sometimes they are; sometimes they are not), and the value of professional pessimism. The pessimism part was pretty funny. But I loved the conversation about blogging best and how bloggers sometimes give lawyers fits when they blend their core job with their personal opinion -- sliding back and forth between being an official spokesperson and a private individual commenting publically about work-related matters. This can sometimes give the legal types hives if people go too far, McGowan said, although he certainly supports Microsoft's blogging strategy. I think our lawyers would probably agree. I mix personal and work opinions all the time, but I try to follow the founding principle of Sun blogging: "Don't be stupid."
The interview ended on a bit of a downer -- if you are a lawyer, anyway -- but I appreciated the honesty. When Scoble asked something like what advice McGowan had for people out there, McGowan said, "Don't go to law school." After some laughing, he continued. "People think we're kidding ... there's a reason a lot of lawyers want to get out. It can really be a ... not fun gig sometimes. We're always taught that there are two sides to a story. Sometimes there's not. Sometimes there's only one side. And when you go out to find the other side, it can lead to some very interesting and strange places."
Interesting and strange places, indeed. I'm not nearly as critical of lawyers as some of my friends are. I've been in a few of those "interesting and strange places" before, and I always appreciated having someone advocating for me.
