Tesla GC Quits Abruptly

ZeroHedge (slogan: on a long enough timeline the survival rate for everyone drops to zero) attributes General Counsel Dane Butswinkas’s departure from Tesla Motors after barely two months on the job to some injudicious tweets by Elon Musk, who misstated anticipated 2019 annual production and then corrected himself. Both ZeroHedge and possibly Butswinkas anticipate legal problems stemming from the tweets. Butswinkas is leaving Tesla to return to his law firm Williams & Connolly, where he had spent almost 30 years. More than 50 senior executives have left Tesla in the past two years, including heads of sales, engineering, human resources and communications. Jonathan Chang, vice president of legal, will become Tesla’s new top lawyer. Chang was general counsel of Lithium Technologies before he came to Tesla.