Twitter Hires Ex-Tesla Lawyer as New In-House Litigation Leader

Twitter Inc. has recruited a litigator from another Elon Musk-controlled company as it faces mounting legal issues in court.

Adam Mehes joined Twitter from Tesla Inc. this month as head of litigation, a role that reports to the social media company’s new chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, said a source familiar with the matter. He’s also senior director of legal at Twitter, which is part of Musk’s X Corp., according to his LinkedIn profile.

Tesla and Mehes didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Twitter is grappling with a variety of legal issues, such as $10 million in unpaid bills to service providers and payments allegedly owed to former executives and other employees. It’s also sued GitHub Inc., seeking to uncover the identities of individuals who leaked parts of its proprietary source code. X Corp. was hit this month with a $250 million copyright lawsuit by major music publishers.

Mehes was part of the “hardcore litigation department” that Musk pledged to build in-house at Tesla after clashing with lawyers at outside firms. Mehes was an associate general counsel for litigation after joining the automaker last summer from Davis Polk & Wardwell, where he spent nearly a dozen years.

His arrival at Twitter comes as Yaccarino, a former advertising chief at NBCUniversal Media LLC, officially took the reins from Musk as CEO. Davis Polk is a longtime adviser to Comcast Corp., which owns NBCUniversal.

This month Mehes withdrew as counsel to Musk in a dispute over his support of the cryptocurrency Dogecoin. Mehes and trial lawyer Adam Cashman also represented Musk in his recent $10,000 settlement of a defamation lawsuit filed against him by Tesla critic Randeep Hothi.

Twitter Challenges

Twitter, like Tesla, has seen its roster of in-house lawyers change frequently under Musk.

Dozens of attorneys have departed Twitter within the past few months, following Musk’s $44 billion takeover of the company in late 2022. The exits included the legal team’s leadership and all of its deputy general counsel, leaving many former mid-level lawyers in prominent positions.

In May, two of the remaining lawyers landed new jobs. Katherine Lee Martin, a senior legal director at Twitter, became chief counsel at Hertz Global Holdings Inc. Christopher Sulfaro, a director and legal counsel for advertising revenue, content, and creator partnerships, left Twitter to join Snap Inc., the parent company of social media rival Snapchat, as an associate general counsel.

Other notable companies, including social media app TikTok Inc. and genealogy database Ancestry.com LLC, have been busy in recent weeks hiring former Twitter in-house lawyers for various roles.

Twitter is restocking its legal unit, bringing on former Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom associate Adeeb Sahar earlier this year to be its new global head of commercial, corporate, and international law. Sahar was part of a Skadden team that advised Musk in acquiring Twitter.

Tesla is also looking to bolster its legal ranks.

Brandon Ehrhart, the company’s new general counsel and sixth legal leader in five years, has put out a public call for resumes from Big Law partners with trial expertise. Tesla in April hired a head of litigation in Brian Jazaeri, an ex-partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius who most recently led litigation at DaVita Inc.