Nexstar Names Rachel Morgan EVP-General Counsel

Nexstar Media Group on Thursday appointed Rachel Morgan as executive vice president and general counsel, effective June 20. She will report to Perry Sook, Nexstar’s chairman and chief executive officer, and is assuming the position of general counsel from Elizabeth Ryder, who has been Nexstar’s General Counsel since 2009. Ryder will continue serving as secretary to Nexstar’s board of directors.

Morgan brings a broad range of legal and business experience to Nexstar and will be responsible for the long-term legal strategy and day-to-day management of Nexstar’s legal affairs, as well as those of its affiliated companies. She will serve as a key legal adviser on business transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and other strategic partnerships, and will oversee the company’s regulatory filings, all aspects of commercial contracts, technology transactions, privacy and data security matters, labor and employment issues, as well as intellectual property, real estate, and litigation matters.

Since 2012, Morgan has served in a variety of roles of increasing responsibility in the corporate legal department of AT&T, most recently as vice president and associate general counsel, corporate and labor and employment litigation, for AT&T Services. During her tenure at AT&T, Morgan has overseen litigation involving AT&T, and managed the team responsible for the company’s labor and employment matters.

In her previous role at AT&T, Morgan was responsible for shareholder engagement issues, provided support to the company’s board of directors, managed the corporate secretary team, and helped to manage the operations of the company’s legal department.

During her nearly 10-year tenure at the telecommunications giant, she also led legal teams supporting AT&T’s Consumer, Customer Experience, Corporate Strategy, Digital, Global Marketing, Global Connection Management, Technology Operations, Network, Technology Development, Information Technology, Automation, and Privacy and Compliance organizations.

“We are grateful to Elizabeth for her invaluable contributions during a time of tremendous growth for Nexstar,” Sook said. “Her expertise in guiding the company’s legal affairs related to mergers, acquisitions, and regulatory matters has been enormously helpful. We are very pleased to have attracted someone of Rachel’s caliber as our next general counsel.

“She is a leader — smart, articulate and creative — and her depth of experience in corporate strategy and legal operations make her an ideal addition to Nexstar’s executive team. She understands the rapidly changing media environment, has developed broad expertise in a variety of legal matters, digital operations, and technology, and knows how to manage complex transactions. I look forward to her counsel and insight, which I am confident will benefit Nexstar and its shareholders.”

Before joining AT&T, Morgan was in private practice for nearly 15 years, during which time she gained a wide variety of expertise and experience representing large corporate clients in labor and employment disputes and commercial litigation.

“Joining Nexstar as its next General Counsel is a tremendous honor, and I am grateful to Perry and the Board for giving me this opportunity,” she said. “I am very impressed with Nexstar’s scale, its long track-record of success, and its plans for future growth. In addition, the company has an outstanding management team — I am looking forward to being a part of it and to learning from Elizabeth as I transition into this new role.”

Morgan earned her law degree, with honors, from The University of Texas School of Law and her bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University.