NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Katherine Moran Meeks has been named General Counsel of FOX News Media, announced Suzanne Scott, its CEO. Meeks will begin her new role on August 19th, while Bernard T. Gugar has stepped down from his position as General Counsel and Executive Vice President of Corporate Development. Meeks will report directly to Scott with further reporting responsibilities to Fox Corporation’s Chief Legal and Policy Officer Adam Ciongoli.
In making the announcement, Scott said, “We are delighted to welcome Kate to FOX News Media and look forward to her tackling the legal intricacies of the ever-evolving media landscape. We thank Bernard for his incredibly hard work and extensive contributions over the last three years and wish him the best of luck in his next role.”
In commenting on the transition, Gugar said, “My decision to step down was a difficult one, but I’m grateful to everyone at FOX News Media for an incredibly rewarding experience and wish the network nothing but continued success.”
Meeks added, “I’m thrilled to join the most powerful and dominant news brand in the industry especially as someone who started their career in journalism.”
Most recently, Meeks was a partner in the Washington, DC office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher where she practiced in the firm’s Litigation Department as well as the Appellate and Constitutional Law and Labor and Employment groups. In private practice, she has represented journalists and media companies in libel and other speech-based tort cases, from discovery through dispositive motions, trial, and appeal. Meeks has also presented oral argument in the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Seventh, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits and in federal district courts.
Prior to her stint at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, she was an associate at Williams & Connolly in the firm’s Media and First Amendment practice group and earlier clerked for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court and then-Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Meeks began her career as a journalist, starting as a reporter for The Day in New London, Connecticut. In 2005 she moved to New Orleans to join The Times-Picayune in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which later won a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the devastating Category 5 storm. She covered various beats there including local politics and government, real estate and health care and was promoted to Deputy Business Editor before leaving to embark on a law career.
A summa cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Meeks served as editor-in-chief of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and was awarded the Oscar Milton Davis Prize for earning the highest marks in the third year. She received her bachelor’s degree from Yale University, where she was editor-in-chief of the Yale Herald.
FOX News Media operates the FOX News Channel (FNC), FOX Business Network (FBN), FOX News Digital, FOX News Audio, FOX News Books, the direct-to-consumer streaming services FOX Nation and FOX News International and the free ad-supported television service FOX Weather. Currently the number one network in all of cable, FNC has also been the most watched television news channel for more than 22 consecutive years, while FBN is the top business channel on cable. Owned by Fox Corporation, FOX News Media reaches nearly 200 million people each month.
