Tesla’s lawyers have asked the US law firm Cooley to fire a lawyer, otherwise, Cooley will lose Tesla’s business. The lawyer Tesla wants Cooley fired worked for the SEC. In 2018, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he had raised the funds to take the company private.
After that, the SEC launched an investigation into Musk and asked the lawyer to interview Musk. The investigation culminated in a settlement: Musk and Tesla agreed to each pay $20 million in fines, and Musk agreed to step down as Tesla chairman for three years.
Tesla lawyers at the end of last year asked Cooley to fire the lawyer involved in the SEC investigation, people familiar with the matter said. However, Cooley refused to fire the lawyer. As a result, Tesla has dropped Cooley or hired other lawyers in multiple cases since December.
Musk’s rocket company SpaceX also stopped working with Cooley on regulatory issues. Tesla has also dug the SEC’s corner. Tesla has hired former SEC trial attorney David Misler as management counsel. In fact, it’s not just the SEC that has clashed with Musk.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is already investigating whether Tesla’s Autopilot system was at least partly responsible for hitting a parked emergency vehicle. To that end, the SEC hired Missy Cummings, a Duke University professor, automated systems expert, former Navy fighter pilot and Tesla critic, as an investigation consultant.
In October, Musk sparked an outcry among Musk’s fans when he said on Twitter that “historical records show she has a serious bias against Tesla. Subsequently, NHTSA asked Cummings to recuse himself from Tesla-related matters. Tesla, Cooley and SpaceX have yet to comment.