Tesla investors to urge judge to reject record $7 billion legal fee in Musk pay case

FILE PHOTO: Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk walks
next to a screen showing an image of Tesla Model 3 car
during an opening ceremony for Tesla China-made
Model Y program in Shanghai

WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) - Tesla shareholders will appear in court on Monday to argue that an unprecedented request for more than $7 billion in attorneys' fees to be paid by the company is "outlandish," the latest twist in a legal showdown over Musk's $56 billion pay package.

The record fee request was made by investor Richard Tornetta on behalf of three law firms that represented him, including Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann. Tornetta owned nine shares of Tesla when he sued over Musk's pay package of stock options in 2018, a legal battle he ultimately won in January when the package was voided.

The fee equals around $7.2 billion at Tesla's Friday's stock price and amounts to a rate of roughly $370,000 for every hour worked by the 37 lawyers, associates and paralegals, some of whom normally bill as little as $275 an hour, according to court documents submitted Tornetta's lawyers.

By Tom Hals.

Full story at Yahoo News.