Tesla Taps Walmart Ethics, Compliance Chief for New Legal Role

Tesla Inc., which has faced accusations of lax in-house legal management, has hired a new compliance leader from Walmart Inc.

David Searle, a former federal prosecutor who joined Walmart in 2019, became deputy general counsel and senior director of compliance at Tesla last month, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Reached last week at Tesla via email, Searle confirmed he joined the upstart automaker though declined to discuss details. He spent nearly the past two years as international chief ethics and compliance officer at Walmart, which in recent months made changes to its compliance personnel.

Searle’s move to ...