10.05.2018

|

General News

Partner Evelyn Cruz Sroufe was quoted in The Verge article, "After the SEC settlement, who will review Elon Musk’s tweets?" regarding the liability issues of Elon Musk's tweets and their potential review process.

This is honestly not much of a surprise, but it is profoundly unusual. Most CEOs have a huge and mostly invisible apparatus around them to prevent anything horrible from happening. They engage in carefully controlled speech, and even minor appearances are often vetted by legal or public relations, often both, says Evelyn Cruz Sroufe, who handles corporate law. Anything a CEO wants to say that’s either likely to generate news or be material to the company is typically aired with the board or a representative of the board; investor relations is typically also involved, she says.

But Musk’s Twitter use “is pretty unusual because of the volume of stuff he puts out,” Evelyn says, “and the ungoverned nature of what comes out.”

Who would review Musk’s Tesla hot takes? It could be an independent board member or more than one. A committee of independent board members would be a natural choice where Musk could check his tweets, Evelyn tells The Verge. That’s the most flexible way to handle it: to have some independent person with good judgment vetting the tweets before they go live. “Whether he’s willing to do that is a real open question,” Evelyn says.

If he isn’t, it’s not clear what happens next because it’s not clear what kind of formal process the board can impose. “The ideal way is that they take over his Twitter account and review everything, but I just don’t think you’re going to get there with him,” Evelyn says.

So… what happens then? That part isn’t clear either, even though Musk’s Twitter kerfuffles this year have, so far, cost Tesla shareholders $20 million (plus lawyers’ fees). That may mean the actual enforcement mechanism will end up being shareholder lawsuits. Musk’s tweets are a liability issue as well as a board oversight issue, Evelyn says.