New Allies Elon Musk, Donald Trump Now Share a Boutique Law Firm

Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump, increasingly allied on some key issues, can now list one more thing they have in common: a legal adviser.

The Dhillon Law Group is leading a new suit by X Corp., formerly Twitter Inc., against a group of advertisers boycotting the Musk-owned social media company. The boutique firm, founded by conservative lawyer Harmeet Dhillon, also serves as primary outside counsel to Trump’s presidential campaign.

Musk recently endorsed Trump in his bid for the US presidency. The pair are rolling out a “major interview” Monday on X, Trump said in a social media post.

Both men are known for cycling through outside counsel—and sometimes building their own litigation teams—to address myriad legal and regulatory issues.

Dhillon, who addressed the Republican National Convention last month in Milwaukee, lost a long shot bid for leadership of the organization last year. The California litigator’s other notable clients include ex-Fox News personality Tucker Carlson, who Dhillon defended in a sex discrimination case last year.

Musk’s X filed an antitrust case this week against the World Federation of Advertisers, an industry group behind the nonprofit Global Alliance for Responsible Media, which Musk claims organized an advertiser boycott of X that’s cost the company billions of dollars. GARM, whose members include major companies like McDonald’s Corp. and Nike Inc., announced Thursday it would discontinue its operations but contest Musk’s lawsuit in court.

Dhillon’s shop and the S|L Law Firm in suburban Dallas are serving as co-counsel to X in that litigation. X’s complaint lists Dhillon—who worked at four Big Law firms prior to starting her outfit two decades ago—and fellow partners Christopher Renner, Andrew Mann, and Jonathan Shaw as representing X.

Mann joined Dhillon’s firm last month from Troutman Pepper, where he was a partner. Renner, a former co-chair of the antitrust practice at Jenner & Block, was recruited in June. Shaw is a former partner at Boies Schiller Flexner and Susman Godfrey who joined Dhillon in 2022.

Dhillon’s firm hasn’t previously represented Musk-related entities in US federal court, according to Bloomberg data. Renner, while a partner at Boies Schiller, once counseled SolarCity Corp. in an antitrust case filed in 2015. Tesla acquired SolarCity the following year.

Mann said in a post to LinkedIn this week that he moved to the Dhillon firm with the “specific purpose and intent to use the talents I’ve been blessed with to make a difference.” He and Renner previously worked together at the FTC.

Harmeet Dhillon and David Warrington, another partner at her firm who is serving as general counsel to Trump’s campaign, didn’t respond to requests for comment. Nor did Adam Mehes, a former litigator at Davis Polk & Wardwell who is now senior counsel and head of litigation at X.

In a LinkedIn post of her own Thursday in response to Mann’s hire, Dhillon said “it’s an honor to practice law with women and men who share our values of excellence, integrity, and a better world.”