Disney Is Shuffling Its Legal Team To Prepare for the Next Four Years of Fights With the Government

Disney is facing the one thing that businesses never want to face: the unknown. Unlike some of its competitors, The Walt Disney Company does not know what to expect from the next four years.

Since its feud with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Disney has become the scourge of the right. With Donald Trump heading back to the White House, Disney is facing an uncertain future.

After the debate against Kamala Harris on Disney-owned ABC, Trump vowed revenge against Disney, including using the FCC to strip the company of its broadcasting license. Trump is also in the process of suing Disney for defamation of character.

However, Disney has dozens of businesses across many industries, so it can expect pressure from the White House on many different fronts.

To help them prepare for the unknowns of the next four years, Disney has just completed a significant shakeup of its in-house legal team. Disney hopes that its new legal team can help them prepare for the battles on many fronts that are about to come.

Disney hired Matthew Penarczyk, the former global head of legal, business solutions, and corporate compliance for TikTok, as the new general counsel for Disney Experiences. Before his time at TikTok, Penarczyk was the deputy general counsel at Microsoft.

Penarczyk has experience on Capital Hill from his time at TikTok. The social media app is fighting a nationwide ban over concerns that the Chinese government could gain access to user data.

Disney also hired David Howard, who spent 12 years at Microsoft as the company’s deputy general counsel. Disney created a new role for Howard that oversees antitrust, compliance, transactions, and mergers and acquisitions.

Disney’s Chief Legal and Compliance Officer Horacio Gutierrez said:

We are continuing to evolve our legal team and global affairs organizations to best support the size, scale, and complexity of our company and its global businesses. We have some of the best legal and public policy minds in the world at Disney and David and Matt bring a wealth of experience to the team. 

Disney is still hiring a legal operations chief to oversee its technology initiatives, including the company’s move into artificial intelligence.

These moves make it clear that Disney expects a bumpy and unpredictable four years, and they’re lawyering up for it.