Brandon Ehrhart, former general counsel for Dish Wireless, has been hired by Tesla Inc as its new legal chief. Ehrhart has spent most of his career at Dish Network Inc, where he also held the position of executive vice president and corporate secretary. Tesla confirmed the news on Twitter, stating that Ehrhart has joined the company as general counsel, a position that has been vacant or filled on an interim basis since 2019. The electric carmaker and Ehrhart did not respond to requests for comment at the time of the announcement.
Dinna Eskin, described as senior director of legal at Tesla on her LinkedIn account, will continue in a leadership role within the company’s legal department as the company aims to build a world-class team. Eskin took on a more significant role at Tesla after the departure of former legal department head David Searle. The company also hired several other lawyers in the past year, including Michael Munro as associate general counsel for global compliance and Derek Windham as deputy general counsel for corporate and securities.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has a history of rocky relationships with lawyers. In May, Musk tweeted that the company was seeking “hardcore streetfighters” lawyers rather than “white-shoe lawyers… who thrive on corruption.” He has also been critical of individual law firms and senior former in-house lawyers at Twitter Inc, which he acquired for $44 billion.
This rocky relationship with lawyers has continued since Musk became Twitter’s CEO. He fired Twitter’s legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde in October, and several other top lawyers, including deputy general counsel James Baker, have also been fired or resigned. Damien Kieran, who resigned as Twitter’s chief privacy officer, vice president, and deputy general counsel in November, recently joined photo-sharing app-maker BeReal as its top lawyer.
Gadde, Baker, and former head of trust and safety Yoel Roth appeared before the U.S. House Oversight Committee to answer questions about Twitter’s decision to limit the reach of a New York Post article on President Joe Biden’s son Hunter before the 2020 election.
Tesla has hired Brandon Ehrhart as its new legal chief as the company continues to shake up its legal department ranks. Ehrhart, a former general counsel for Dish Wireless, will take on the role of general counsel at Tesla, a position that has been vacant or filled on an interim basis since 2019. Dinna Eskin will continue in a leadership role within the company’s legal department, and Tesla has hired several other lawyers in the past year to build a world-class team. Despite Elon Musk’s history of having a rocky relationship with lawyers, the company remains committed to creating a robust legal department.
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Elon Musk’s Tesla turns to telecom veteran for top lawyer