X Corp., formerly Twitter Inc., has filed a lawsuit in the San Francisco Superior Court against a former company law firm. The law firm in question is Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, a well-known US law firm that was representing Twitter during Elon Musk’s attempt to back out of his $44 billion deal to buy the company. According to the New York Times, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz received a fee of US$ 90 million for their role in the concluded purchase agreement. X Corp alleges that this payment constitutes “unjust enrichment” and is demanding repayment of the fee.
The lawsuit also claims that the law firm withdrew funds from Twitter’s treasury during the handover to Musk. Just hours before the deal was closed, Twitter signed a new contract, the Closing Day Letter Agreement, which awarded the attorneys a hefty contingency fee. The lawsuit states that the costs were originally around $17 million.
The former Twitter management hired these lawyers after Musk attempted to cancel the deal, which was ultimately completed in October 2022. X Corp is also accusing the former Twitter executives of breaking the law and breaching their fiduciary duties by approving the payment. It is alleged that the executives rushed to close the deal with Musk, acting neither “prudently” nor “informed.” The New York Times reports that neither the law firm nor Twitter have responded to inquiries regarding the lawsuit.
This is not the first time that the Twitter takeover has been riddled with controversy. The article mentions several other instances where charges related to Musk’s purchase of the social media company have been disputed, such as arbitration costs over Twitter’s mass layoffs. A consulting firm has also sued Twitter for $1.9 million in unpaid bills, and another PR firm appears to have sued Twitter for unpaid services.
