Disney’s Top Lawyer Gets a 36% Compensation Boost Amid Rebound

The Walt Disney Co.'s chief legal and compliance officer received more than $15.8 million in 2024, an increase of almost 36% from the year prior.

Horacio Gutierrez, one of the best paid legal chiefs in the media and entertainment industry, was a high-profile Disney hire three years ago when he succeeded the company’s longtime top lawyer Alan Braverman. He joined CEO Robert Iger in receiving a solid pay bump last year as the conglomerate benefited from a turnaround in Disney’s film and streaming businesses.

Gutierrez received almost $10 million in stock and option awards and nearly $5.8 million in cash, including a base salary of almost $1.5 million, according to a proxy filing late Thursday. That total was up from the $11.7 million he received in 2023 and about on par with the $15.2 million that Gutierrez earned after coming aboard in 2022. Disney gave Gutierrez a roughly $22 million package to recruit him from Spotify Technology SA, where he spent a half-dozen years running the Swedish streaming media company legal affairs.

Spotify, in turn, had hired Gutierrez from Microsoft, where he worked for almost 18 years, rising to become general counsel for the company. During his time at Microsoft and Spotify, Gutierrez developed a reputation for being a savvy legal leader well-attuned to a variety of regulatory and business challenges.

Gutierrez recently led Disney’s roughly 1,400-strong law department through a revamp, bringing aboard his former Microsoft colleagues Matthew Penarczyk and David Howard. Gutierrez previously took on compliance chief duties amid mass layoffs at the company. Disney subsequently added a deputy compliance lawyer to assist him with that business function.

Burbank, California-based Disney agreed this month to merge its Hulu + Live TV streaming service with online sports-focused FuboTV Inc., in a deal designed to create the second-largest provider of digital pay-television services. Cravath, Swaine & Moore, which is advising Disney in antitrust litigation with streaming media customers, is also handling its bid to buy FuboTV.

Disney followed up its proposed acquisition of FuboTV by scrapping a plan with two other media rivals—Fox Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.—to create a streaming sports network. That business, briefly known as Venu Sports, hired its own legal chief in an ultimately ill-fated effort to get off the ground.

Warner Bros. announced this month its addition of a new legal chief in Priya Aiyar, while Fox brought on Adam Cionogli a year ago to lead its in-house legal team. Fox disclosed last year that Ciongoli received a $9.2 million pay package to make the move to the company from Campbell Soup Co.