My Journey from Brooklyn to Hip Hop, Microsoft, and the Law
September 1, 2022
Raised in Manhattan's Amsterdam housing projects, falsely accused of robbery at age 10, witness to a close friend's murder at age 15, and drawn into the drug trade, Jackson was then made an offer that set him on a path leading to Georgetown Law. Now he's Microsoft's associate general counsel, having also spent three decades working with some of the top music producers in the United States.
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November 28, 2022
In this earnest debut, lawyer Jackson recounts his rise from living in public housing to becoming associate general counsel for Microsoft. Growing up in 1970s New York City, Jackson developed his drive after his high school history teacher told him that he wasn’t “college material.” After graduation, he attended Hofstra University, where he experienced the “culture shock” of being around “so many white folks,” and, later, he declined accounting job offers to attend Georgetown Law. Jackson recalibrated his career aspirations after two years of being “the only Black attorney at an otherwise all-white law firm” and forged a decade-long career in entertainment law before he was recruited by Microsoft. Jackson is incisive as he describes the isolation he felt at predominantly white universities and law firms, and at Microsoft, which compelled him to advocate for inclusion and diversity in the workplace. He pulls no punches when discussing the racism he’s experienced throughout his life, but he remains determined to rise above the “unfairness in the DNA of our society”: “If you want to move forward in life, there’s no option: you’ve got to keep moving.” Readers will be inspired. Agent: Frank Weimann, Folio Literary.
January 1, 2023
What makes this appealing rags-to-riches memoir so unusual is that the author is not a celebrity or star athlete. He's an attorney for Microsoft. However, that doesn't make Jackson's journey--from the public housing projects of Manhattan to launching his own entertainment law firm to his current role as associate general counsel for Microsoft--any less impressive. The author's storytelling is measured and remarkably evenhanded, whether he is relating how he convinced LL Cool J's grandmother that he should represent the rapper or explaining how he put his career ahead of his family, hurting his marriage. Though he occasionally skimps on personal details, Jackson is passionate and engaging in his discussions of racial relations and diversity. "Diversity happens mostly at the recruitment and hiring stage, and it is crucial; but it is, in many ways, merely a prerequisite for the intensely hard work of inclusion," he writes about feeling so lonely as a Black man at Microsoft that he nearly quit. "I'm sure that, if pressed, most of my colleagues would have strongly denied any racist tendencies whatsoever and defaulted to Hey, I got my life, and Bruce has his life." Jackson's story clearly shows why his life is so different from the lives of his White counterparts. Professors questioned his abilities because of his race and background. Police arrested him because of a glitch with his car insurance, and when he told his Microsoft co-workers about the experience, they didn't believe him. "My world is different than your world once we leave this place," he tells them. "That's what some of you don't understand; hopefully you understand it now." By sharing his life story in this way, the author will open the eyes of some people while letting others feel seen for the first time. Jackson's well-crafted American success story is the kind of aspirational, warts-and-all tale that truly inspires.
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