Yahoo Finance Tesla loses general counsel after just two months in the job
Tesla's general counsel is leaving the electric car manufacturer after just two months in the role, in a move likely to reignite fears over the company's ability to retain talent.
Dane Butswinkas will be returning to his law firm Williams & Connolly, in Washington, Tesla said, and will be replaced by Jonathan Chang, a vice president in the company's legal department.
Mr Butswinkas only joined Tesla at the end of December, at the time having said the company presented a "unique and inspiring opportunity".
Prior to that, he had worked as outside counsel for Elon Musk during his legal battle with the US Securities & Exchange Commission which ultimately resulted in the regulator handing Mr Musk and Tesla $20m in penalties.
The SEC had claimed that Mr Musk had committed fraud for sending a tweet in September saying he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private. Mr Musk and Tesla settled this case with the SEC without admitting any wrongdoing.
Stepping down from his role on Wednesday, Mr Butswinkas said he would be continuing his work with Tesla in an outside counsel role.
"I’m grateful for the opportunity over the past seven months to have worked with both Elon and Tesla, first as outside counsel and most recently as general counsel," he said.
The shift in Tesla's legal team came just hours after questions over whether the company is sufficiently regulating Mr Musk's tweets resurfaced.
He had written a post on Twitter stating the company would make around half a million cars in 2019, later clarifying he meant production would reach an annualised rate of half a million cars by the end of the year.
Under the SEC settlement agreement last year, Tesla had said it would appoint a securities lawyer to monitor Mr Musk's Twitter posts which are related to company news.
The past year has been turbulent for Tesla, with a host of executives having left the business recently.
At the start of February, for example, Deepak Ahuja stepped down from the chief financial officer post, and over the past year, the company has also lost its vice president of communications, its treasurer, chief accounting officer and chief people officer.
In the eight months to September 2018, around 41 executives had left the electric car maker, according to a tracker maintained by Kynikos Associates founder and Tesla short-seller Jim Chanos.
Mr Musk has previously spoken about the strain employees are put under, saying it is "tough" because the company "must work harder than other manufacturers to survive".
“There are many companies that can offer a better work-life balance, because they are larger and more mature or in industries that are not so voraciously competitive,” he has explained.
