Twitter reportedly fired Elon Musk’s personal lawyer | Engadget

In one of his first comprehensive meetings after taking over the company in October, Elon Musk told Twitter employees that the site’s financial situation was dire, and warned that bankruptcy was “not out of the question.” Since then, the situation on Twitter seems to have become more serious.

New York times reports The company is taking drastic steps to cut costs. In recent “weeks,” Twitter has reportedly not paid rent for its headquarters in San Francisco and branch offices in other countries. According to the court documents he obtained timesThe company also refused to pay $197,725 for charter flights Musk took during his first week on Twitter. At the same time, the social networking site has continued to cut staff — although Musk recently told employees that the company was being laid off. Among the recent victims is Nelson Abramson, the company’s global head of infrastructure. On Monday, the company dissolved its Board of Trust and Safety from outside advisors.

according to timesMusk and other executives have also spoken about the potential consequences of refusing severance payments to the thousands of people who have been let go from the company in recent weeks. When he first acquired Twitter, Musk reportedly considered firing several employees who were subsequently laid off without any terminations. However, he ultimately decided to give American employees at least two months of salary and one month of termination, a move that ensured the company’s compliance with federal and state labor laws.

Amid these cost-cutting efforts, Musk has reconfigured Twitter’s legal team in anticipation of the legal battles the company is likely to face in the near future. He recently fired Alex Spiro. The criminal defense attorney was one of Musk’s close personal allies. In 2019, he successfully defended the billionaire in a ‘sexual harasser’ defamation case. Musk has accused Spiro of leading the company’s legal and policy teams, but reportedly resented his personal attorney after it was discovered he had kept James Baker as deputy general counsel on Twitter. Musk fired Baker after discovering that the former FBI attorney was responsible for reviewing the company’s decision to restrict posts related to the 2020 article. New York Post Posted about Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Since then, Musk has reportedly brought in “more than half a dozen lawyers” from SpaceX to fill the void left by Spiro and Baker. Among those now advising Twitter is SpaceX Senior Vice President and General Counsel Tim Hughes. Anticipating potential lawsuits, Musk also told employees not to pay travel bills and other vendors the company owed money for their services.