Top Fox Corp. lawyer to exit company

A top lawyer at Fox Corp., the organization that owns Fox News Media, will exit the company at the stop of the year.

Viet Dinh, who has served as the media conglomerate’s lead authorized counsel and claimed instantly to prime executive Lachlan Murdoch, will step down effective December 31, 2023.

“We appreciate Viet’s several contributions and provider to Fox as each a board member of 21st Century Fox and in his job over the last 5 a long time as a valued member of FOX’s management group,” Murdoch said in a statement on Friday. “We are grateful that he will carry on to provide Fox as Particular Advisor wherever we will profit from his counsel.”

Dinh’s departure will come just months immediately after Fox agreed to pay back $787 million in settlement money to Dominion Voting Units in relationship with Fox News’ airing of false promises about the company’s software program currently being promoted by previous president Trump and his allies.

Fox’s legal workforce experienced mounted a First Amendment protection all over the authorized saga and argued for months the promises becoming built by Trump and some others about the 2020 election ended up newsworthy.

As element of Dominion’s legal procedure of discovery, a trove of internal communications from within the community was unearthed, displaying best executives and hosts throwing chilly water on the assertions being built about voter fraud by Trump and his allies.

Fox however faces a independent defamation lawsuit from Smartmatic, an additional voting methods corporation, more than comparable claims manufactured on its air adhering to the 2020 election.

“We will be completely ready to defend this case bordering really newsworthy situations when it goes to trial, most likely in 2025,” a spokesperson for the community stated in its most current statement about that lawsuit. “As a report organized by our money professional exhibits, Smartmatic’s damages claims are implausible, disconnected from fact, and on its deal with meant to chill To start with Amendment freedoms.”

The Wall Street Journal, which is also owned by the Murdochs, documented on Friday that Dinh was among the most influential executives at Fox Corp. and observed he experienced been instrumental in the company’s lawful strategy in combating back the modern defamation claims the corporation has faced.

In a assertion, Dinh stated he has “been privileged to be portion of the Fox family” and he “look[s] forward to continuing with Fox as Distinctive Advisor, and to returning to my roots of working on many ventures and with quite a few consumers throughout a range of disciplines.”