Lloyd M. Johnson, CEO of Chief Legal Executive LLC, the publisher of the Black In-House Counsel Annual Report. He is the Co-Founder of the Black GC Roundtable and served as the first Executive Director of MCCA. Courtesy photo Op Ed: Media's Reporting on Diversity Should Look Far Beyond Coca-Cola
In the days since the news broke, countless stories have been published examining the why and how of Gayton's story arc and offering him up as a diversity "cautionary tale." Some have foolishly called his efforts a "game changer," "aggressive," or "unrealistic." Yet nothing could be farther from the truth.
May 05, 2021 at 12:11 PM
6 minute read
Commentary
On April 18, the day the news broke that Bradley Gayton would be leaving his role as General Counsel at Coca-Cola, my phone blew up. Black, White, Asian and Latinx general counsel whom I have known for years suddenly started emailing, calling and texting. Each one was more dismayed than the next as we watched the highly sensationalized and overblown coverage of Gayton's change in status.
Within hours, anonymous sources were piling on, offering conclusions suggesting that the separation of one attorney from one company would trigger a tsunami that would wash away efforts to diversify the legal industry.
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