(Photo: Shutterstock.com) (Photo: Shutterstock.com)

Six Flags Entertainment Corp. has named a new top lawyer as the amusement park operator's longtime general counsel steps off the roller-coaster ride of leading a legal department and heads into retirement. 

Laura Doerre will take over for Lance Balk on March 9, according to a SEC filing on Tuesday. Doerre, who currently serves as the chief lawyer for door and window maker JELD-WEN Inc., assumes control of Six Flags' legal department as the Texas-based company grapples with a downturn in business. 

Six Flags reported on Feb. 20 that its revenue for the fourth quarter of 2019 was $261 million, a decrease of $9 million, or 3%, when compared to the same quarter in 2018. The company, which has 26 parks across the U.S, Mexico and Canada, cited a 3% drop in attendance and a 1% decrease in sponsorship, international agreements and accommodations revenue as the primary reasons for the loss. 

The company also recently announced that it had nixed its plans to open parks in China after terminating its development agreements with a Chinese business partner that defaulted on contractual payment obligations. 

As part of her employment agreement with Six Flags, Doerre will receive a base annual salary of $540,000, a $75,000 signing bonus and the opportunity for a yearly bonus of $405,000. She also gets $600,000 in stock under a long-term incentive plan that vests on the second anniversary of her hire date. 

Attempts to speak with Doerre or a Six Flags representative were not immediately successful. 

Doerre has served as the executive vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer of Charlotte-based JELD-WEN Inc. since 2016, when she was hired with a base salary of $500,000, according to her employment agreement. She oversees global legal, risk and compliance issues for the company, which has yet to name her successor. 

Earlier in her career, Doerre worked for nearly 20 years at Nabors Industries Inc., a global oil and gas drilling firm headquartered in Houston. In 2008, she was named as Nabor's vice president and general counsel, a position she held for eight years before she joined JELD-WEN. 

Doerre notified JELD-WEN on Feb. 20 of her intent to resign and officially departs on March 4. She leaves the company as it continues to deal with the fallout over its 2012 acquisition of Craftmaster Manufacturing Inc., which sparked costly and ongoing antitrust litigation. 

JELD-WEN spokeswoman Noreen Pratscher dismissed the litigation as "opportunistic" and "without merit," adding that the company will "vigorously oppose it." 

Pratscher also said Doerre "resigned from JELD-WEN to pursue another opportunity based on personal circumstances.  This was a personal decision; her resignation is unrelated to any of the company's pending legal matters and is not the result of any disagreement with the company."

Balk, Doerre's soon-to-be predecessor at Six Flags, leaves the general counsel post after nearly a decade. The former Kirkland & Ellis partner said in a 2015 interview with Corporate Counsel sister publication Texas Lawyer that he enjoyed riding roller-coasters and asserted that "theme parks are very, very safe places." 

But he added that the most difficult case he'd handled involved a woman who was killed after she was ejected from the Texas Giant roller coaster in 2013. The woman's family sued and the case was ultimately settled.  

"That was a sad and difficult thing for the whole company and the team there in Texas and the management team," Balk said at the time. "I know we were able to work it out and to take care of that family."

Updated on Feb. 26 with comments from JELD-WEN. 

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