AOL Taps Media Lawyer for Senior Post

For the second time in four months, America Online has tapped an entertainment industry executive for a senior post--a sign that the world’s largest computer online service believes it has more in common with Hollywood than Silicon Valley.

On Thursday, AOL announced that its new senior vice president and general counsel will be George Vradenburg III, a senior partner at Latham & Watkins in Los Angeles. Vradenburg is co-chairman of the law firm’s entertainment and media practice, which counts DreamWorks SKG among its clients.

Before joining Latham & Watkins in 1995, Vradenburg spent four years as executive vice president of Fox Inc. in Los Angeles and 11 years at CBS Inc. in New York as the network’s senior vice president and general counsel.

“He comes from a broadcast world, and that’s where AOL is heading,” said Patrick Keane, an online analyst with Jupiter Communications in New York.

In an interview from AOL’s headquarters in Dulles, Va., Vradenburg said the potential mass appeal of the technology hit home for him when he realized that even a layman like himself relied on it for updates on financial news.

“I am a typical consumer, which means if it’s getting to me, it’s getting to millions of other people, and it’s ready to burst into a real mass medium,” he said. “This is like television in the early 1950s.”

But by appealing to a broad audience and offering a monthly fee of $19.95 for unlimited network access, AOL landed in legal hot water. Customers, unable to dial into the network, filed lawsuits, and state attorneys general threatened legal action of their own. Last month, AOL offered refunds and service credits to settle claims of consumer fraud.

Observers believe those legal troubles motivated America Online to make a decision on a new chief lawyer.

Investors seemed to approve of the move, bidding up AOL stock 62.5 cents to $37.75 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange.