Bingham McCutchen was dropped by insurer over diversity, says GC

The general counsel of Massachusetts Mutual has explained why the insurer stopped doing business with the now-defunct Bingham.

Bingham McCutchen dropped by insurer over diversity LEE SNIDER PHOTO IMAGES

Mark Roellig told Bloomberg Business of Law: 'When our lead director is African American, a former CEO and chairman of Washington Gas Light, and I’m saying that diversity matters to me, you tell me how I can look that person straight in the eye and say we continue to use a firm like that.' 

Diversity and selling hours

He suggested that law firms did not need to embrace diversity within their ranks to sell their hours - and that building diversity could even hurt the selling of hours. But, as a result of Bingham not doing more on diversity,  Mass Mutual decided to stop doing business with it. Mass Mutual has 13 million clients and works from 1,800 offices. Source: Bloomberg Business of Law

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