American Airlines Group is looking for a new chief legal officer to replace Priya Aiyar, who will depart the Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier next month to become Warner Bros. Discovery’s new legal chief.

Aiyar joined American in 2019 as senior vice president and general counsel and was promoted in 2022 to executive vice president of corporate affairs and chief legal officer.

Aiyar will succeed Warner Bros. Discovery chief legal officer Savalle Sims, who revealed in September that she was leaving. She and the New York City-based company did not publicly explain her departure, and Sims’ LinkedIn does not indicate she’s landed a new position. Discovery Inc. CEO David Zaslav hired Sims as general counsel of that company in 2011, and seven years later she played a key role in covery’s $14.6 billion acquisition of Scripps Network properties including HGTV and Food Network.

Sims also helped Discovery pull off its $43 billion purchase of WarnerMedia from AT&T in 2022—the transaction that created Warner Bros’ Discovery—and stayed on as legal chief of the merged companies.

“There has never been a more important moment for WBD and our industry to have the brightest minds, most experienced practitioners and proven leaders, and Priya personifies those traits,” Zaslav said.

“Priya’s wealth of knowledge and strategic capabilities will help us to smartly navigate the opportunities and ongoing evolution ahead this year and beyond as we pursue global growth in streaming, a return to excellence at our studios, and optimization of our linear business”—the term the industry uses for watching scheduled TV programming on cable or a satellite network.

The new role will offer plenty of challenges. Warner Bros’ Discovery shares have fallen by more than half in the nearly three years since the companies merged. The business is weighed down by more than $40 billion in debt while it also copes with the decline in cable TV, its largest source of revenue.

Aiyar could not be immediately reached for comment.

“Priya joined American more than five years ago and has been a terrific member of the senior leadership team. While we are sad to see her depart, we wish her well as she enters the next chapter of her career,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said in a memo to employees.

Isom said senior vice president and deputy general counsel Bruce Wark will serve as interim chief legal officer while AA searches for Aiyar’s replacement.

Wark has served in legal roles at AA for nearly 22 years.

“His industry experience and knowledge of our airline makes him ideally suited to guide our legal organization during this next phase,” Isom said.

While Wark has specialized in aviation, Aiyar brought a broad range of experience from corporate, law firm and government roles.

She joined United Airlines in 2017 from Willkie Farr & Gallagher in Washington, D.C., where she was a partner in its litigation and global trade and investment groups.

Before that, Aiyar served as acting general counsel for the U.S. Department of Treasury, deputy general counsel for the U.S. Department of Energy and legal adviser to the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

From 2010-2011 Aiyar was deputy chief counsel for the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling.

AA made a special effort to retain Aiyar in recent years.

In 2023, the most recent publicly disclosed period, the airline paid her $7.76 million, including a $1.2 million retention bonus. Her salary was nearly $700,000, and she received $3.1 million in stock awards and $2.7 million in cash incentive compensation.

AA said the retention bonus was to make up for money withheld in earlier years under the federal CARES Act passed by Congress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Airlines agreed to restrictions on executive pay contained in the law in return for billions of dollars in loans and grants that helped keep them afloat during the public health crisis.

Among matters on the plate of American’s 32-lawyer legal department in recent years was defending against a Department of Justice lawsuit to block its alliance with JetBlue on routes in the northeastern United States.

The DOJ argued the alliance, launched in 2020, violated the Sherman Act and resulted in higher fares and reduced choices. After a federal judge in 2023 year sided with the DOJ, the two airlines canceled the arrangement.

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