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.