(top left to right): Cynthia Bright, head of worldwide litigation at HP and Keir Gumbs, deputy general counsel at Uber Technologies Inc. (Bottom): Jennifer Yokoyama deputy general counsel, IP, at Microsoft.
As someone who spent 13 years at Covington & Burling, Keir Gumbs recalled that clients pushing for diversity helped him make partner at the firm.
Gumbs, along with in-house attorneys from HP and Microsoft, spoke during a panel sponsored by DLA Piper on Wednesday about how their companies encouraged outside counsel to put diverse attorneys on matters. The discussion was scheduled before the abrupt resignation of Bradley Gayton, the general counsel at Coca-Cola who pushed for aggressive diversity targets, but given Gayton’s ouster, concerns are swirling around diversity staffing issues.
