You may have heard the legal drama about Elon Musk's pay package a few months ago. I believe it was in the beginning of this year when Musk's pay package of $56 billion was found illegal and cancelled. It was an interesting story, many had different views and opinions about this. On one hand I thought what Musk wanted for compensation as the CEO of Tesla a bit greedy, but on the other in a free market if all involved parties agree and benefit from decisions no compensation is too high. I wasn't sure what to think of the entire situation. All I got from it was Musk really love money, and not in it only for innovation and technology. After the legal drama ended and lawyers who argued against Elon Musk won their case in the court successfully, I thought it was the end of it.
Today, news broke that the lawyers who won the case against Elon Musks pay package are seeking $5.6 billion in Tesla stocks as legal fees. Wow! Is this a hypocrisy or what? Their entire argument in defeating Elon Musk was that him and Tesla board involved in collusion to get him a greedy package deal. The core case was that Elon was too greedy and wanted too much in compensation for the work he has been doing at Tesla as a CEO. By the same logic, if $56 billion is too much for a CEO of startup company who successfully was able to take a decent amount market share in automobile industry from giants who had been in the space for ages, then $6 billion for legal fees for team of lawyers is definitely beyond greedy.
Yes, lawyer have high fees, especially the ones who deal with corporate disputes. These fee even when inflated have some limits that kinda may present them as reasonable. I don't know who was involved in the case, I don't know how many lawyers and their associates did the work. Let's assume there were 100 lawyers involved and they all deserve being paid $1 million a year for their work on this case. If they spent 5 years on this case, they would all be entitled for $5 million each. For all 100 lawyers the total number would be $500 million. Of course I am exaggerating here. It is very unlikely 100 lawyers worked in the case, and also unlikely all make $1 million in one case. But even with exaggerated imagination I can't get close to a billion dollars in fees.
In addition to this crazy legal fee they are asking the judge to award them, they are asking for a couple million dollars in expenses. lol. I can't even start to comprehend the greed and hypocrisy of these lawyers. If you ask me none of them deserve these amounts to be awarded. For what? They already have received the best award lawyers and law firms can get. That is free marketing and reputation in corporate law space. The only reason the case received such attention is because it involved Elon Musk and Tesla. By winning the case they have built themselves a nice reputation as competent lawyers and a law firm. This should drive more business and bring in more clients. Usually that's what law firms like to gain when they get involved in high profile cases.
There are many things I dislike about Elon Musk. It might be how he behaves, what he says, what he does, or even maybe bad comedy. But what I admire about him is his role as visionary and innovator in technology. I do believe Tesla's success has to do a lot with Elon leading him. Visionaries have similar characteristics in my opinion. They have unreasonable obsession in the space they are in, and able to see how future can be changed with innovation, and able to bring teams together in achieving these goals despite the huge obstacles. Steve Jobs was able to create and build Apple when all odds were against him. Then he was able to revive Apple, take it out of failing and make one of the most successful companies in the world again. There are many things I didn't like about Jobs either. But his contributions to advancement in technologies can't be ignored.
Sure, paying tens of billions to CEOs is crazy. But is not that crazy if these CEO are visionaries like Musk, Jobs, Nakomoto, etc. Because in the end such compensation end up being small fees for massive gains investors receives. When this legal drama was on going, Musk made a couple statements that he deserve to have big percentage of stakes in the company to be incentivized and continue making it a success. There were many investors who sided with Musk as well and they too agreed with Elon and didn't mind his big compensation package. I do think it is kinda too greedy for someone who is already extremely wealthy. What do you need more money for? The Tesla share he already has would be plenty if Tesla continues to be successful. Ok, fine, he loves money. To me that just reveals that he has more obsession with money than changing the auto industry and/or innovating. That's his prerogative.
What the lawyers asking is more than 10% of what would have been Musk's compensation if it wasn't deemed illegal. If the argument was that Musk was getting a little bit more than he deserves, there would be no case. Even if the argument was he is bing paid double of what he deserves, there would be no case. Because these wouldn't worth seeking legal actions. So the numbers had to be considered too big like 10x bigger. In other words I would assume in the eyes of these lawyers Musk should have only be paid max 10% of the approved package. That is for all the work done to make Tesla so successful. For some strange reason, these same lawyers think they deserve the same amount or more. I only have one answer to these greedy hypocrites. Go build build such a successful company, and claim all the rewards you can get.
We see hypocrisy every day. That is kinda a norm in this world. Some of them just make zero sense. This one definitely falls into this category. It will be interesting to see what the judge will decide.