Lawyer Gerson Zweifach Stepping Down After Disney

According to sources, Mr. Gerson Zweifach will be stepping down as general counsel of 21st Century Fox after the company completes its sale of studio assets to The Walt Disney Company.

The Rupert Murdoch-led company announced the departure on Thursday. According to a press release, Zweifach will be returning to the law firm of Williams & Connolly, where he spent more than three decades prior to joining 21st Century Fox.

Zweifach served both as group general counsel as well as the company’s chief compliance officer. He held the latter role when Fox and News Corp. were a combined entity. He received that appointment in the wake of a hacking scandal involving Murdoch’s U.K. news publications.

In recent months, Zweifach was involved in 21st Century Fox’s efforts to purchase the 61 percent of Sky it doesn’t already own. That transaction has been a contentious one, with Zweifach earlier this year calling out British regulators for engaging in a “political assault.”

“Gerson is one of the brightest legal minds in the business and has been instrumental in our growth having successfully led our legal and policy strategies across the globe,” Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch said in a joint statement. “We are grateful for his unwavering leadership during a transformational period for our business. We support his decision to depart at the close of the Disney transaction and wish him much continued success at Williams & Connolly.”