Tesla Inc has hired former Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co lawyer Derek Windham to helm its in-house corporate and securities legal team, according to his LinkedIn account, as the electric carmaker continues to shuffle its law department.
Windham started at Austin, Texas-based Tesla in July as deputy general counsel for corporate and securities, according to LinkedIn. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday on his move.
Neither Tesla nor its acting head of legal, David Searle, immediately responded to requests for comment confirming Windham’s hire Monday.
Windham most recently spent seven years as vice president for corporate, securities, governance and finance at Spring, Texas-based HPE, according to his LinkedIn account.
An HPE spokesperson confirmed on Monday that Windham had left the company.
Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk are embroiled in various legal battles, including with the SEcurities and Exchange Commission over a 2018 agreement to have Musk’s Twitter posts vetted.
Musk, the world’s richest person, is also in a legal dispute with Twitter Inc over his effort to walk away from his $44 billion deal to buy the social media company.
Twitter sued Musk last month, asking a Delaware court to order him to follow through on the merger. Musk filed a countersuit claiming he was hoodwinked into signing the deal by Twitter, which he said failed to accurately disclose its true number of users. Twitter and Musk are set to head to trial on Oct. 17.
Tesla has had five different top lawyers in the past three years, with Searle as the most recent head of the legal department.
The company has also seen lawyers come and go further down in its ranks. Tesla recently hired Michael Munro as associate general counsel for global compliance.
Musk said in a May tweet he wanted to build a “hardcore litigation department” at Tesla.
A job listing posted on LinkedIn for Windham’s deputy general counsel role said the position will report to the head of Tesla’s legal team and will lead the company’s global corporate, securities and corporate governance work.
Before HPE, Windham served as vice president and associate general counsel at Del Monte Foods Inc and as an associate at U.S. law firms Morrison & Foerster and O’Melveny & Myers, according to his LinkedIn account.
