Understanding Elon Musk—And What It’s Like to Be Titan’s Lawyer

Elon Musk’s outbursts over the coronavirus-related closure of Tesla Inc.’s factory were familiar ground to Myra Pasek.

“You deputize your lawyers to go and negotiate with these people and it’ll be fine,” said Pasek, the second lawyer through the in-house door at Tesla in 2007. “I would’ve said, ‘Elon, tell me what you want, chill out, and let me do my job and deliver it.’”

Managing Musk, as a business leader and cultural icon, has long fallen to lawyers who wrestle with his delight in flouting authority while reveling in his vision that produced an electric car for the masses ...