Louis J. Briskman Named Executive Vice President And General Counsel

Louis J. Briskman Named Executive Vice President And General Counsel

Former General Counsel of CBS Rejoins the Company on September 6th, Will Be Chief Legal Officer Of New CBS Corporation After Viacom Split

NEW YORK, Aug. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Louis J. Briskman has been named Executive Vice President and General Counsel of CBS, it was announced today by Leslie Moonves, Chairman, CBS and Co-President and Co-Chief Operating Officer, Viacom.

Effective September 6th, Briskman will oversee all legal activities for CBS, UPN, the Viacom Television Stations Group, Paramount Television, King World, Infinity Broadcasting, Viacom Outdoor, Simon & Schuster, Showtime and Paramount Parks. The existing General Counsels of each of those divisions will remain in place and work closely with Briskman, who in turn will work in close association with the Viacom Law Department.

When these business entities and their associated subsidiaries become a separate company after the Viacom split, Briskman will become the chief legal officer of that new entity, which will be called CBS Corporation. He will report directly to Moonves.

Briskman served as general counsel of CBS Corporation prior to its merger with Viacom, Inc., in 2000.

"Lou Briskman is one of the finest media and entertainment attorneys I've ever had the pleasure of working with," said Moonves. "He has that great combination of experience in all aspects of our business, a strategic understanding of the many issues that confront our company, tremendous integrity and the toughness of hide to make sure we are well-represented in this competitive media landscape. It's great to have him back."

Briskman was most recently senior vice president and general counsel of Aetna Inc., where he has served since April of 2004. Before joining Aetna, Briskman had a long career at Westinghouse's broadcasting company, and at CBS. He joined Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1975, became general counsel of the company's broadcasting subsidiary, known as Group W, in 1983, and rose to the position of the parent corporation's general counsel, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, in 1993. He served in that role through the company's transformation into a pure media entity, which culminated in the acquisition of CBS in 1995 and the name change to CBS Corporation, in 1997, where he continued his service as general counsel.

Briskman is a 1970 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and a 1973 graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center. He is a Regent on the Georgetown Board of Regents and Chairperson of the Georgetown Corporate Counsel Institute.

Source: CBS

CONTACT: Gil Schwartz, +1-212-975-2121, gdschwartz@cbs.com

Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/965075.html

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