Microsoft is bolstering its legal team to prepare for regulators

The tech world’s changing, and Microsoft wants additional counsel as a result.

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What you need to know

In a recent interview withAxios, Microsoft’s president Brad Smith outlined the company’s plan to bulk up its legal and corporate affairs division in the upcoming fiscal year. Specifically, the goal is to grow it by 20% in the approaching year and more in the years after, as Microsoft’s interested in picking up more people than a single year would allow for.

Microsoft’s legal and corporate personnel will get reshuffled as a result of the company’s hiring spree strategy. For starters, general counsel Dev Stahlkopf has left Microsoft and gone to Cisco. According to Axios, these are the other major roster alterations:

In the interview with Axios, Smith said Microsoft’s goal was to get ahead of regulations and preemptively accommodate them instead of fighting them.

It’s worth noting thatMicrosoft is lawyering upjust as its pact with Google tonotlitigate is ending. Make of that what you will, and be sure to check outWindows 11contentin the meantime if you’re not in the mood to think about corporate politics.

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Robert Carnevale is the News Editor for Windows Central. He’s a big fan of Kinect (it lives on in his heart), Sonic the Hedgehog, and the legendary intersection of those two titans, Sonic Free Riders. He is the author ofCold War 2395. Have a useful tip? Send it to robert.carnevale@futurenet.com.