Defense Verdict Secured in Multibillion Dollar Securities Trial on Behalf of Elon Musk and Tesla

The firm secured a defense verdict in a multi-billion securities trial in San Francisco, with the jury finding client Elon Musk and Tesla not liable for investor losses.  The trial followed Musk’s 2018 tweets that he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private, and the jury reached their decision after less than two hours of deliberation. The victory was particularly remarkable in that the court had instructed the jury that the tweets were false and recklessly made, and that the jury’s task was to determine only whether the false representations were “material” and, if so, the amount of damages. Plaintiffs claimed that damages were in the range of $12 billion.  Firm partners Alex Spiro, Andrew Rossman, and William Price were named “Litigators of the Week” by The American Lawyer for this victory. The trial received extensive media coverage by publications such as Law360, The Recorder, and The Washington Post, among others.