Never Far from Home: My Journey from Brooklyn to Hip Hop, Microsoft, and the Law

Microsoft’s associate general counsel shares this story that is ＂as nuanced as it is hopeful＂ (Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Leader) about his rise from childhood poverty in pre-gentrified New York City to a stellar career at the top of the technology and music industries in this stirring true story of grit and perseverance. For fans of Indra Nooyi’s My Life in Full and Viola Davis’s Finding Me.

As an accomplished Microsoft executive, Bruce Jackson handles billions of dollars of commerce as its associate general counsel while he plays a crucial role in the company’s corporate diversity efforts. But few of his colleagues can understand the weight he carries with him to the office each day. He kept his past hidden from sight as he ascended the corporate ladder but shares it in full for the first time here.

Born in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Jackson moved to Manhattan’s Amsterdam housing projects as a child, where he had already been falsely accused and arrested for robbery by the age of ten. At the age of fifteen, he witnessed the homicide of his close friend. Taken in by the criminal justice system, seduced by a burgeoning drug trade, and burdened by a fractured, impoverished home life, Jackson stood on the edge of failure. But he was saved by an offer. That offer set him on a better path, off the streets and eventually on the way to Georgetown Law, but not without hard knocks along the way.

But even as he racked up professional accomplishments, Jackson is still haunted by the unchanged world outside his office.

From public housing to working for Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, and its founder, Bill Gates, to advising some of the biggest stars in music, Bruce Jackson’s Never Far from Home reveals the ups and downs of an incredible journey, how he overcame many obstacles and the valuable lessons learned along the way.

Bruce Jackson is an associate general counsel and managing director for strategic partnerships at Microsoft and a former entertainment attorney. Born in Brooklyn, he studied law at Georgetown University and spent a decade working in entertainment law with some of the top music talent in the country. Since then, he has received Microsoft’s diversity award, participated in Microsoft’s law and corporate affairs’ diversity efforts, helped launch Microsoft’s Elevate American Veterans Initiative, and worked to develop its diverse recruitment pipeline. Jackson is a board member of the Universal Hip Hop Museum, the New York City Mayor’s Corporate Counsel Committee, and sits on the advisory board of the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms. Jackson was previously appointed to New York State’s Advisory Council on Interactive Media and Youth Violence by former governor David Paterson. Never Far from Home is his first book.