Microsoft Corp., which has battled federal antitrust charges and persistent complaints from temporary workers, now is fending off fresh attacks on its management policies from some African American employees.

In the past several months, former workers have filed three race discrimination cases in federal courts around the country. Today a D.C. suit will get a boost as a prominent lawyer and several more disgruntled employees enter the fray.

Willie E. Gary, a Florida lawyer who has mounted successful attacks on such corporate icons as Coca-Cola Co. and Walt Disney Co., has stepped in to represent Rahn Jackson, a former account executive at Microsoft, and six other African Americans once or currently employed at Microsoft's offices in the District and Washington state.

The workers allege that because of their race they were not evaluated, promoted or paid as highly as white employees, in violation of federal civil rights law. They also allege unequal treatment under legal provisions that would allow them to recover punitive damages.

"African Americans just don't move up the ladder -- and they're qualified," Gary said in an interview. "They don't get evaluated fairly. It's based on race. And the compensation they do get is not comparable."

Gary cited 1999 figures showing that Microsoft employed 21,429 people, of whom 553, or about 2.6 percent, were African American. He said of the firm's 5,155 managers in 1999, 83 -- or about 1.6 percent -- were black.

Ginny Terzano, a Microsoft spokeswoman, said she could not confirm those numbers. She maintained, however, that the company has hired more African Americans in recent years and has donated more than $100 million to foster interest in technology among young women and minorities.

"Microsoft does not tolerate discrimination in any of its employment practices," Terzano said. "We do not believe there is a pattern or practice of discrimination at Microsoft. We cannot comment on specific complaints or lawsuits because they involve personnel matters and litigation, but we are actively committed to diversity."

The issue of diversity at technology companies has attracted renewed attention as high-tech firms begin to play a larger role in the American economy. Women -- who constitute about 46 percent of the national workforce -- make up about 19 percent of those employed in science, engineering and technology, according to a July 2000 report by a federal commission examining the technology workforce. African Americans make up just 3.2 percent of those in the same fields, according to the commission. They make up about 11 percent of the workforce overall.

Jackson, 36, worked for Microsoft for 41/2 years, selling its products to the Army before quitting last October. He said in an interview that he was repeatedly passed over for promotions despite 17 years of sales experience and that he contacted several company executives, including President Steve Ballmer, about his concerns.

"I was absolutely ignored," Jackson said.

Peter Browne, formerly senior director of information technology at Microsoft and at one time the highest-ranking African American at the company, said he was often approached by blacks worried about their treatment.

"I found soon enough I couldn't help them," said Browne, 58, whose own age and race discrimination case against the company is slated for trial later this year. "I couldn't help myself."

Jackson initially filed suit last June, although his new attorneys will ask a federal judge to amend the case to include six other African Americans with similar complaints. Gary said he will request class-action status for the case, to encompass all blacks who worked at Microsoft as far back as April 1992. That's a move that may set the stage for a turf dispute between him and attorneys at Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, a D.C. law firm that's filed suit in Washington state on behalf of another former Microsoft worker.

Meanwhile, the judge assigned to hear the D.C. case is Thomas Penfield Jackson -- the same jurist who presided over a mammoth, 78-day trial after which he found Microsoft had used its monopoly power in the personal computing industry to prevent rivals from entering the market for operating systems and Internet browsers. Jackson eventually ordered that the company be split into two parts. That ruling is being appealed.