Disney’s Former Top IP Lawyer Sues House Of Mouse For Ageism & Wrongful Termination: “Sleepless Nights & Days”

EXCLUSIVE: Over decades at Disney, Mary Fossier employed the full force of the law against individuals and organizations that attempted to infringe on the House of Mouse’s intellectual property. Now, after being canned by then Bob Iger-run company in late 2024, the ex-associate General Counsel is turning the law on Disney in a just filed discrimination, retaliation and wrongful termination action.

Claiming she was fired in a round of layoffs “to make way for a younger and less qualified colleague,” 29-year Disney vet Fossier’s own attorneys claim their client “has been devastated both economically and emotionally by her wrongful discharge.”

According to the five claim complaint filed Thursday in L.A. Superior Court: “For nearly three decades, Ms. Fossier served as an exemplary employee and leader in Disney’s Legal Department. She rose from a business litigator to the level of Senior Vice President and designed and built the most effective Intellectual Property (“IP”) enforcement program in the world. On October 24, 2023, Ms. Fossier’s new supervisor told her during their first meeting together that ‘you need to think about ‘retiring’ and questioned Ms. Fossier about what she had done to prepare for retirement. Ms. Fossier, who was then 64 years old, had not thought about retiring, and planned to continue working for at least another ten years. Disney fired her the following year to make way for a younger and less qualified colleague.”

With no small sense of irony, Fossier herself was even asked by that supervisor, Parks, Experiences, and Products, Antipiracy, and Real Estate operations boss Louise Pentland, and other higher-ups in Disney’s Legal department for impute in the summer of 2024 in the “cost-saving initiative dubbed ‘Project Coco.'”

In today’s jury trial seeking filing, Fossier wants a slew of unspecified damages, compensation for “past and future lost income,” and injunctive relief — which means several million bucks easily.

As for the fallout from losing her job, litigator Fossier’s Pasadena-based Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai lawyers say: “Once a highly compensated and hard-working professional, Ms. Fossier stands almost no chance at age 67 of finding new employment. Her days and nights as a successful senior executive of one the world’s most celebrated companies have been replaced with sleepless nights and days when she is unable to get off her couch. The stress and humiliation of her termination and loss of purpose have been profound.”

Telling a far too frequently heard tale (at least in the courts) of cost cutting “Disney’s clear pattern of targeting older workers for layoff” to save a few bucks and bring down the head count, Fossier’s complaint also alleges the company turned a blind eye to comments and statute violations distinctly brought to their attention. In what may be a smoking gun of sorts if documents back it up (and lawyers always keep notes, you know) Fossier insists “on at least three occasions during the time that she was under Ms. Pentland’s managerial oversight, Ms. Fossier reported Ms. Pentland’s ageist comments, treatment, and behavior to Disney’s Human Resources Department and sought their assistance.

“Disney took no action in response to any of Ms. Fossier’s complaints.”

Contacted by Deadline today, Disney had no comment on Fossier’s suit.

Of course, with layoffs coming just last week at Disney and Deadline’s exclusive in late September on the internal memo from Chief Legal and Global Affairs Officer Horacio Gutierrez warning of “hard choices” for “staffing investments,” the timing of Fossier’s action has an undeniable added punch.