Law of Elon Musk

The long title of this course would be The Corporate and Securities Law of Elon Musk. In his various capacities. As co-founder of PayPal, CEO and chief product architect of Tesla, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX, and lead investor with SolarCity, one of the 10 most followed users of Twitter, and (as of May 2022) bidder for Twitter, Musk has generated an enormous amount of corporate law and securities litigation. In many situations, Musk’s push the edge of the envelope style led to the creation of new law.

The organizing principle of this course is what economists refer to as the principal-agent problem (a.k.a. agency costs). As someone who manages an immense amount of other people’s money, Musk constantly faces the temptation to pursue his own interests and goals rather than focusing on the welfare of those who have entrusted him with their savings. This course examines some of the ways in which law constrains (or fails to) Musk’s divergences from shareholder interests. In addition to legal materials, attention will be paid to business school case studies.