London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Sunday, Sep 21, 2025

Tesla Demanded Law Firm to Fire Lawyer Who Used to Work for SEC Investigating Musk, Report Says

Tesla Demanded Law Firm to Fire Lawyer Who Used to Work for SEC Investigating Musk, Report Says

In the US, companies frequently take issue with government officials that they believe are working against their interests, whether through campaign contributions to influence public policy or legal action.

A Tesla lawyer instructed law firm Cooley LLP to remove one of its attorneys or risk losing work for the electric automaker founded by Elon Musk, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

According to the report, Tesla wanted the firm to fire a lawyer who used to work for the Securities and Exchange Commission prior to his current position late last year. Moreover, Musk was reportedly interviewed by this attorney as part of the agency's investigation into the Tesla CEO's 2018 claim that he obtained money to take the carmaker private.

According to reports at the time, the world's richest man and Tesla agreed to pay a $20 million fine apiece and Musk agreed to step down as Tesla chairman for three years as a result of the probe. Musk also reportedly agreed to have his company's lawyer analyze tweets on the company's financial results, sales numbers, and prospective business combinations in advance.

However, the law firm refused to terminate the attorney's contract, and they are said to still be an associate at the company, according to the outlet's sources.

As a result, Tesla has reportedly been taking measures to replace Cooley or hire additional counsel in multiple cases since early last month. Moreover, Musk's rocket business Space Exploration Technologies Corp., widely known as SpaceX, has stopped utilizing the law firm for regulatory work.

Apart from the SEC, Musk has had quite a few other run-ins with the authorities. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is looking into whether Tesla's Autopilot driver assistance system, marketed as Autopilot, is to blame for crashes involving Tesla cars colliding with parked emergency vehicles.

Missy Cummings, a Duke University professor, automated systems expert, former Navy fighter pilot, and Tesla critic, has reportedly joined the investigation as an advisor. Musk sparked outrage among his followers when he tweeted in October that "her track record is extremely biased against Tesla."

In 2021, Cummings published a research paper in which she concluded that the company's technology does not in fact make vehicles autonomous, performs inconsistently, and that "more testing is needed for these vehicles before such technology is allowed to operate without humans in direct control."

Tesla reportedly responded by saying that driving with Autopilot on is safer than driving without it.

According to the report, following the backlash from the Musk criticism, the NHTSA later required Cummings to recuse herself from Tesla-related matters.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
Alibaba Debuts Open-Source Deep Research Agent with Benchmarks Rivaling OpenAI
Marcos Faces Legacy-Defining Crisis as Flood Projects Scandal Sparks Massive Tide of Protests
China’s Micro-Drama Boom Turns Stalled Real Estate Projects into Lavish Film Sets
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
'Company Got 5,189 H-1B Visas, Then Laid Off 16,000 Americans': US Defends New $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Golf legend tells Omar she should be 'sent back to Somalia' after her Kirk comments
EU Set to Bar Big Tech from New Financial Data Access Scheme
China Bans Livestreaming and AI in Religion Amid Crackdown on Shaolin Temple Scandal
Documents Reveal Mandelson Failed to Declare Epstein-Funded Flights as MP in 2003
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Harris Memoir Sparks Backlash from Democrats for Blunt Critiques in ‘107 Days’
Germany Weighs Excluding France from Key European Fighter Jet Programme
Cyberattack Disrupts Check-in and Boarding Systems at Major European Airports
Japan’s ‘Death-Tainted’ Homes Gain Appeal as Prices Soar in Tokyo
Massive Attack Withdraws from Spotify Over Daniel Ek’s €600M Defence-AI Investment
Björn Borg Breaks Silence: Memoir Reveals Addiction, Shame and Cancer Battle
When Extremism Hijacks Idealism: How the Baader-Meinhof Gang Emerged and Fell
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
Trump Orders Third Lethal Strike on Drug-Trafficking Vessel as U.S. Expands Maritime Counter-Narcotics Operations
Trump Orders $100,000 Fee on H-1B Visas and Launches ‘Gold Card’ Immigration Pathway
Why Google Search Is Fading and AI Is Taking Its Place
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Federal Judge Dismisses Trump’s Fifteen-Billion-Dollar Suit Against New York Times, Orders Refile
France’s Looming Budget Crisis and Political Fracture Raise Fears of Becoming Europe’s “Sick Man”
Three Russian MiG-31 Jets Breach Estonian Airspace in ‘Unprecedentedly Brazen’ NATO Incident
DeepSeek Claims R1 Model Trained for only $294,000, Sparking Global Debate Over China’s AI Capabilities
SoftBank Vision Fund to Cut Nearly Twenty Percent of Staff in Bold AI Strategy Shift
Intel’s Next-Gen Manufacturing Gets a Lifeline from Nvidia’s Strategic $5B Deal
Erika Kirk Elected CEO of Turning Point USA After Husband Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
×