Players On the Move

Jordan Fasbender has resigned as chief legal officer of iHeartMedia just four months after securing a contract extension that included a pay raise and loftier title. The radio and audio-streaming giant stated in a recent SEC filing that Fasbender would leave around April 1 to accept a job elsewhere. The filing did not identify the position and Law.com was unable to reach Fasbender for comment. Last November, San Antonio-based iHeart promoted Fasbender from general counsel to chief legal officer and increased her salary from $725,000 to $825,000, with a boost to $850,000 scheduled to kick in in October of this year. In addition, the company increased her target annual bonus from 110% of her salary to 115%. And iHeart said that it planned to award Fasbender a stock grant valued at $1 million. It wasn’t clear from iHeart’s SEC disclosures whether she received that award. In the recent SEC filing, the company stated, “Ms. Fasbender’s resignation is not the result of any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices.” iHeart had not yet disclosed 2024 executive pay. In 2023, Fasbender earned $2.33 million, including an $852,049 stock award and $751,169 in non-equity incentive compensation. That made her iHeart’s fourth-highest paid executive. The company didn’t name Fasbender’s successor in its recent announcement. iHeart owns about 860 radio stations in 160 markets. Fasbender joined iHeart in 2019 as deputy general counsel and became general counsel in January 2021, in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was her first legal chief role. Fasbender joined iHeart from 21st Century Fox, where she was associate general counsel. There, she worked on the $71 billion sale of 21st Century Fox to Disney, which closed in 2019. iHeart revenues last year rose 3% to $3.9 billion. But $923 million in non-cash impairment charges resulted in a $1 billion net loss. … Pierson Ferdinand has added Andrew Lurie as a partner in Los Angeles, the sixth new partner hire to the firm’s Global Media, Entertainment & Sports Practice in the last several months. Pierson Ferdinand’s announcement describes Lurie as having two decades of experience in “IP/licensing matters, business structuring, employment law, and various entertainment transactions.” Kurie was formerly in-house counsel at Sony Music.