45 percent of Microsoft’s legal fees to be on an alternative fee basis, re general counsel

Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, made some comments on a panel reported in the ACC Docket, Jan./Feb. 2010 at 89-90. He said his budget had been reduced by 10 percent. Given some figures previously published, he may have taken a haircut of something like $40-60 million (See my post of June 30, 2009: Microsoft’s management initiatives with 30 references.).

Later, Smith said that he “anticipates that 45 percent of Microsoft’s legal bills will be on an alternative fee basis, up from 31 percent two years ago.” At seven percent a year, the shift amounted to more than ten million dollars a year (based on an estimated 450 lawyers and a typical benchmark figure of $600,000 in outside costs per lawyer).