White House Author

Brad Smith is Microsoft's general counsel and executive vice president. He leads the company's Department of Legal and Corporate Affairs (LCA), which has just over 1,000 employees and is responsible for the company's legal work, its intellectual property portfolio and patent licensing business, and its government affairs and philanthropic work. He also serves as Microsoft's corporate secretary and its chief compliance officer. Brad has also helped advance several significant diversity and pro bono initiatives, both within Microsoft and in the broader legal community. He currently co-chairs, with actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie, the board of directors of Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), a national organization dedicated to the facilitation of pro bono representation to the thousands of unaccompanied children who enter the United States alone each year to flee violence, human rights abuses, natural disasters, and economic deprivation. Just two and a half years into its operations, KIND has assisted over 3,000 children and trained 3,200 pro bono attorneys in seven cities. He also leads the pipeline initiative for the Leadership Council for Legal Diversity, has chaired the Washington Roundtable, and co-chaired this past year with his wife the annual campaign for the United Way of King County, the largest United Way campaign in the country.