Disney Plans Legal Department Layoffs Amid AI Shift

The Walt Disney Company is preparing a new round of layoffs within its Legal and Global Affairs (LGA) department, which currently employs about 1,000 people. Chief Legal and Global Affairs Officer Horacio Gutierrez informed staff in a September 18 memo that the department will become a much smaller organization as the company shifts toward automation, AI-driven workflows, self-service models, and outsourcing.

These reductions follow previous workforce cuts of approximately 1,000 workers in April and several hundred more in July, including staff at Pixar. The company is also expecting separate layoffs among executives previously advised to take early retirement. This restructuring coincides with the appointment of Karandeep Anand as Disney's first Chief Technology Officer, an executive with a background in AI.

The layoffs occur despite strong third-fiscal-quarter results, with Disney reporting $25.2 billion in revenue and $2.64 billion in profit. Critics have pointed to a contrast between these job losses and the company's investor spending, noting that Disney spent $7.2 billion on share buybacks and $1.3 billion on dividends during the first nine months of its fiscal year, with a full-year buyback target of at least $9 billion.