Akin Harrison, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary with TEGNA/courtesy photo

It has been a turbulent three years for media company TEGNA Inc. and for its associate general counsel, Akin Harrison, culminating with his recently being named the company's general counsel, senior vice president and secretary.

TEGNA, based in McLean, Virginia, owns or operates 47 television stations and two radio stations in 39 markets across the country. TEGNA's reorganization has been ongoing since Gannett Co. Inc. split in 2015. The publishing side kept the name Gannett, while the more profitable broadcast and digital media side was named TEGNA.

In taking over TEGNA's legal department, Harrison will replace Todd Mayman, executive vice president and chief legal and administrative officer. Harrison, as Mayman did, will serve as a member of the company's leadership team.

In a statement, TEGNA said Mayman plans to retire early next year.

An Oct. 2 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said, as part of an internal corporate reorganization, Mayman's position was being eliminated in early 2019, “which will result in the termination of employment without cause.” Under its severance plan outlined in an SEC filing in March, a terminated-without-cause executive receives a higher severance payout than a retiring one.

After the  2015 split, TEGNA spun off its popular Cars.com website in 2016, naming an outsider, Orbitz Worldwide's Jim Rogers, as Cars.com's chief legal officer. Then TEGNA's president, Gracia Martore, who was CEO of the predecessor Gannett, announced her retirement in June 2017. At the same time, the company terminated John Williams, president of its digital unit. Now Mayman is leaving.

According to the filing, CLO Mayman will receive around $2.7 million in severance compensation, including 1.5 times his average base pay, plus bonus and stock holdings.

Before joining Gannett in 1993, Mayman was an associate at Arent Fox.

CEO David Lougee said in a statement, “I want to thank Todd for an exceptional 25-year career at TEGNA [and Gannett]. He's been at the center of our most significant milestones during his tenure and has been a thoughtful and valued counselor to me. I wish him all the best in his well-earned retirement.”

The new GC, Harrison, has been with the company for over 15 years, starting in 2003 as an assistant general counsel. His work has focused primarily on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and investments.

He earned his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School and his undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Virginia, according to the company.

Lougee also praised his new GC in a statement. “Akin has been instrumental to our legal department since he joined the company,” Lougee said.  “He helped lead our acquisition of KFMB in San Diego earlier this year and is currently guiding us through our proposed acquisitions of WTOL in Toledo, Ohio, and KWES in Odessa-Midland, Texas.”

For his part, Harrison said in a statement:  “I appreciate the opportunity to serve TEGNA in my new role. Todd has been a mentor to me since I joined the company and I wish him well in his next chapter.”

One of Harrison's first tasks will be to deal with at least six class action lawsuits accusing TEGNA and five other major broadcast companies of conspiring to fix prices on TV advertising rates.