Fox Corp legal chief Adam Ciongoli to step down, deputy to take over
Fox Corp's chief legal and policy officer Adam Ciongoli will step down on Dec. 1 after deciding not to renew his contract.
The company confirmed the exit on Oct. 19, as reported by Variety. Ciongoli will not leave the orbit entirely. He will serve as a special adviser to Fox through June 2028, a role that keeps him available for counsel without day-to-day authority. The adviser title carries no staff or management line.
Nicholas Trutanich will succeed him as general counsel, the company's most senior lawyer. Trutanich is currently executive vice president and principal deputy general counsel. The company announced Trutanich's promotion alongside Ciongoli's departure. In the top job he will report directly to executive chair and chief executive Lachlan Murdoch.
Ciongoli joined Fox in 2023. Before that he was general counsel of Campbell Soup Co., where his remit also covered sustainability, corporate responsibility and governance. His time at Fox lasted a little over three years. A general counsel leads court cases, regulatory work and deal paperwork.
Trutanich has a longer run at the company. He arrived in 2021 as Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer. In that role he provided ethics advice, oversaw compliance training and investigations, and served as Fox's point of contact with law enforcement. Before joining Fox he was U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada from 2019 to 2021, the federal government's chief prosecutor for that district.
The change also reshapes the government relations line. Kristopher Jones, executive vice president and head of government relations, will report directly to president and chief operating officer John Nallen from Dec. 1. Government relations covers work with lawmakers and regulators. That moves the Washington-facing function under the company's top operational executive once Ciongoli departs.
The top legal post carries large pay. Ciongoli's compensation as chief legal and policy officer was roughly $10.1 million, according to Bloomberg Law reporting in September.
For viewers, nothing changes on screen. No series order, renewal or schedule shift sits behind this announcement. What changes is who advises Murdoch on legal risk and policy, and who the government relations team answers to inside the building. The names change. The slots on air do not.
