Coca-Cola Diversity Policy in Review May Get Legal Challenge (3)

Coca-Cola Co.‘s unexpected removal of its top lawyer has put the company’s ambitious diversity standards for outside attorneys in limbo as questions are raised about whether race-based staffing requirements can be legally enforced.

The diversity standards Bradley Gayton put in place in January, just months after Coca-Cola hired him, are being reviewed by his successor, Monica Howard Douglas, after the company ousted Gayton last week. The policy among other things requires outside law firms to staff at least 30% of new matters with diverse attorneys.

“It’s a laudable goal,” said Julie Levinson Werner, a partner at Lowenstein Sandler LLP ...