AT&T Legal Main Observed Pay Package deal Plunge, Gets Much Much better Information

AT&T Inc.’s regulation office leader David McAtee saw his yearly payment return to prior concentrations in 2021, a yr in which the business agreed to offer off its media property in a $43 billion offer as he fought cancer.

McAtee received extra than $10.5 million in full compensation previous yr, in accordance to a proxy submitting this 7 days by the Dallas-based mostly telecommunications corporation. McAtee’s spend bundle signifies a a lot more than 43% dip from the $18.6 million he earned through 2020, which included a roughly $9 million fairness award.

That inventory bonus wasn’t the first that McAtee been given in the 10 years that he’s been at AT&T. The organization awarded him a $5 million reward in 2018 for aiding it fend off an antitrust obstacle to AT&T’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc.

AT&T’s most the latest proxy states that McAtee was paid out almost $4.2 million in cash—a $1.3 million foundation salary and pretty much $2.9 million in non-fairness incentive prepare compensation—and acquired about $5.4 million in inventory awards past calendar year. The proxy also detailed a lot more than $800,000 in “other compensation” for McAtee, which AT&T disclosed in a footnote was for the “use of business aircraft.”

These flights by McAtee had been “taken for clinical treatment plans,” AT&T explained in the proxy. A spokesman reported McAtee is now in remission from most cancers and the company expects him to make a total recovery.

McAtee didn’t respond to a ask for for comment about his ordeal. AT&T hired the previous Haynes and Boone associate in 2012 to lead its worldwide litigation efforts.

McAtee is the son of veteran Texas litigator David McAtee Sr., who was a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and particular counsel at Hunton Andrews Kurth. The elder McAtee is now of counsel at Dallas-based boutique Hedrick Kring Bailey.

The more youthful McAtee took above AT&T’s legislation division in 2015 on the retirement of longtime lawful chief D. Wayne Watts. He subsequently played a crucial role advising on AT&T’s expansion into mass media by using the Time Warner offer. In 2018, McAtee assumed management of AT&T’s authorities affairs functionality.

The Time Warner transaction was successfully unwound when AT&T, represented by Sullivan & Cromwell, agreed to offer what is now known as WarnerMedia LLC final yr to Discovery Inc. The proposed $43 billion media merger is set to shut in the 2nd quarter immediately after U.S. antitrust regulators declined to block the blend in February.

Bloomberg Regulation documented earlier this thirty day period that Discovery’s top rated in-house lawyer, Bruce Campbell, observed his pay package deal rise 38% final year as a end result of the company’s achievement in clinching the WarnerMedia offer.

AT&T’s 2021 proxy states that McAtee has obligation for all authorized difficulties, such as litigation, regulatory, and administrative matters “before different judicial and regulatory bodies,” as very well as business agreements, labor contracts, and the buy and sale of company assets.

McAtee owns virtually $11 million in AT&T inventory, in accordance to Bloomberg data.