Lawyers who sunk Elon Musk’s big pay package are now asking for nearly $6 billion worth of Tesla stock. Musk doesn’t seem happy.::After sinking Elon Musk’s $55 billion pay package, lawyers are now asking a Delaware court for about 11% of those Tesla shares for their fee.
It is, in the sense that Tesla can now recover that amount from Musk. This is technically a benefit to Tesla and its shareholders, even though the Tesla board were the ones who approved the package in the first place.
Roughly speaking, from a legal point of view, the court is saying that Musk embezzled - or improperly enriched himself to the tune of - $55bn from Tesla by using his close ties with board members, including immediate family. Because this is a civil case, that $55bn recovered is essentially damages, flowing from Musk to Tesla, and the standard for civil cases is that the lawyers can recover a percentage of the damages as their fee (the lawyers here take pains to point out that the amount they’re asking for is actually substantially lower than what is considered the standard for these sorts of cases. But because this is, in effect, the largest judgement ever levied against someone in a civil case, the actual dollar value of the lawyer’s requested fee is eye popping).