Tesla hires new lawyer in compliance role amid legal battles

The symbol of car or truck manufacturer Tesla is seen at a department place of work in Bern, Switzerland. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

(Reuters) – Tesla Inc has hired Michael Munro to manage compliance challenges, in accordance to a post from Munro on his LinkedIn account Tuesday, as the electrical-auto maker and its CEO Elon Musk facial area mounting legal troubles.

Munro will serve as affiliate typical counsel for world wide compliance. Tesla did not validate the employ nor did it straight away react to requests for remark Tuesday.

Munro jumps to Tesla from a aspect-time posture as basic counsel at logistics system enterprise e2Log and a role at compliance consulting company GCMR, which his LinkedIn profile said he co-started.

Tesla and Musk, who is the world’s richest person, are battling on many authorized fronts, which includes with the Securities and Trade Commission more than a 2018 agreement to have Musk’s Twitter posts vetted.

Tesla also faces numerous labor lawsuits, the most up-to-date of which alleges the organization failed to supply lawfully-expected progress observe to staff forward of a recent “mass layoff.” Musk at the Qatar Financial Forum on Tuesday termed the lawsuit “trivial.”

In a Twitter submit last month Musk stated he wished to a construct a “hardcore litigation division” at Tesla that averted “white-shoe lawyers … who thrive on corruption.”

According to Munro’s LinkedIn profile, he has mainly labored in compliance-targeted roles with firms, even though he experienced a temporary stint at significant law business Norton Rose Fulbright in 2016.

Tesla’s legal division has cycled as a result of prime in-home attorneys, with 5 keeping the task in the previous a few years. David Searle is at this time the carmaker’s acting head of authorized.

Searle did not quickly react to a request for comment Tuesday on Munro’s retain the services of.

Study a lot more:

Elon Musk’s rocky monitor record with lawyers goes again decades

Elon Musk files attraction to finish SEC decree around Twitter posts

Tesla sued by previous staff above ‘mass layoff’

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