Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) and the plaintiffs who successfully contested CEO Elon Musk‘s massive compensation package recently clashed in court over a multibillion-dollar attorney fee.
What Happened: On Monday, Tesla asked a judge not to award billions of dollars in shares to the lawyers who challenged Musk's record pay package, portraying them as opportunists trying to benefit from the CEO's achievements, reported the Financial Times.
The hearing, which took place in the Delaware Court of Chancery, saw Tesla’s counsel and the shareholder’s attorney exchanging sharp remarks.
John Reed, a partner at DLA Piper who represents Tesla, described the fee request as a “real-life lawyer joke.” An expert witness for Tesla labeled the fee request as an “unjustifiable windfall.”
The hearing was the first in-court meeting since a June vote in which 72% of Tesla’s shareholders, excluding Musk and his brother Kimbal Musk, overwhelmingly approved the same pay package terms that Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick had rejected in January. Tesla argued that ...