Coke’s Top Lawyer Says Peers Must ‘Create Demand’ for Diversity

Coca-Cola, Inc., under the leadership of its general counsel, Bradley Gayton, recently raised the bar for law departments’ outside counsel diversity requirements by promising to withhold 30% of legal fees from noncomplying firms.

“I feel an enormous sense of obligation to try to ensure that the profession is diverse, and I’m in a position where I feel an obligation to help deliver on that promise,” Gayton told Bloomberg Law.

Bloomberg Law is conducting a Q&A series highlighting some of the legal industry’s most important relationships: the often fruitful but sometimes complicated connections between general counsel and their outside law ...