Lawyers who nullified Elon Musk’s pay as excessive seek US$6 billion fee
- The lawyers said the record legal fee should be paid in the form of US$6 billion in Tesla stock
- Tesla shareholder Richard Tornetta sued Musk in 2018 over his US$56 billion pay package, which a court nixed in January
“We recognise that the requested fee is unprecedented in terms of absolute size,” said the filing with the Court of Chancery in Delaware by the three law firms.
The fee works out to an hourly rate of US$288,888, according to the court filing.
Musk blasted the request as “criminal,” posting on his X platform (formerly Twitter) that “the lawyers who did nothing but damage Tesla want US$6 billion.”
The fee will be paid by Tesla to lawyers who represented Richard Tornetta, a Tesla shareholder who sued Musk in 2018 over the pay package, which a Delaware judge nixed in January.
The electric vehicle maker is being asked to pay the fee because it benefited from the return of Musk’s pay package, which the legal team said will result in the return to the car maker of 266 million shares.