Afternoon Briefs: Coca-Cola GC leaves after 8 months; wrongly jailed man challenges $4K bill for confinement
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Coca-Cola GC who backed diversity initiative leaves job
Bradley Gayton has resigned from his post as general counsel at Coca-Cola to become a “strategic consultant” to the company. Gayton had told outside law firms in January that at least 30% of their associate and partner time on new matters should be billed by diverse lawyers. He will get a $4 million sign-on payment in his new role and will earn $666,666 per month through April 2022. He had been general counsel for only eight months. Coca-Cola’s new general counsel is Monica Howard Douglas, formerly the associate general counsel. (Law.com, Bloomberg Law)
Suit challenges confinement bill after dropped charges
The Kentucky Supreme Court is considering a lawsuit claiming that a detainee shouldn’t have to pay confinement costs when the charges against him were eventually dismissed. David Jones spent 14 months in the Clark County Detention Center before the charges were dropped. He was billed $4,000 for the stay. (Courthouse News Service, the Lexington Herald-Leader)
Former lawyer sentenced for stealing from 9/11 fund
Disbarred New York lawyer Gustavo Vila has been sentenced to 51 months in prison for stealing $1 million awarded to his client from the Department of Justice’s 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. The client was a former New York City police officer who was diagnosed with cancer as a result of his work at Ground Zero. (Bloomberg Law, the Washington Post, Department of Justice press release)
