Musk’s Legal Right Hand: Alex Spiro
Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, is known for his temperament and celebrity clients. Here are some of his career highlights.
Meet Alexander Benjamin Spiro, a Boston-born lawyer and partner at the New York office of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, the global white shoe law firm headquartered in Los Angeles.
He is also a “goon”, the term reportedly used to describe Elon Musk’s close circle of colleagues and friends.
In the crypto domain, he is probably best known as Musk’s lead counsel in the Dogecoin class action lawsuit launched last year by Dogecoin investors. They believe that Musk has been deliberately manipulating the meme coin price as part of his alleged pyramid scheme endeavor.
The case, which some believe lacks sufficient grounds, is taking new twists and turns all the time, with Spiro exchanging strong-worded letters with the plaintiff’s lead counsel, Evan Spencer.
While that case is still evolving, let’s take a closer look at Spiro’s doings over the years.
Celebrity lawyer
Spiro is tough, so the mantra goes. While some may find that trait unattractive, celebrities are often drawn to it, with Spiro gaining the reputation of “a celebrity lawyer.”
In 2013, he joined Ben Brafman’s firm, whose clients include Diddy, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and Harvey Weinstein, among others.
Later in life, he represented an array of big names like Jay Z and Megan Thee Stallion, shot by rapper Tory Lanez. The jury found the latter guilty on three felony counts filed against him.
Spiro also defended the iconic basketball star Charles Oakley, who played in the 1980s for the Chicago Bulls alongside Michael Jordan. He was arrested after a run-in with security at Madison Square Garden. Charges against him, which included assault, aggravated harassment, and trespassing, were dropped thanks to Spiro.
American actor Alec Baldwin, who accidentally shot Halyna Hutchins, a Ukrainian-born cinematographer, was represented by Alex Spiro too. The accident happened in October 2021 on the New Mexico set of the Western. Charges against him were dropped in April 2023 as a result of his input.
“We are pleased with the decision to dismiss the case against Alec Baldwin, and we encourage a proper investigation into the facts and circumstances of this tragic accident,” Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro said in a statement.
Don’t take “pedo guy” close to the heart
Spiro first defended Musk in a libel lawsuit, during which British cave diver Vernon Unsworth, who helped rescue a Thai soccer team that had been trapped inside a cave, took the billionaire to court for the tweet where he called Unsworth “a pedo guy.”
The unflattering description came after Unsworth told Musk to “stick his submarine where it hurts” —Musk had sent it as part of his rescue assistance attempt—as he perceived this move to be a “PR stunt.”
Unsworth sought $190 million in damages from Musk. However, Spiro and his client made the case that “pedo guy” is a very common South African insult that shouldn’t be taken literally. Furthermore, the lawyer attempted to justify Musk's actions by invoking the poorly received JDart concept, a joke that was later removed, with the issuer apologizing for the incident.
The billionaire later said that at the time he was “just some random creepy guy” who was “unrelated to the rescue” and eventually won the case, with the jury saying that the plaintiff failed to substantiate the case well.
Fighter for a living
Spiro’s cooperation with Musk is unlikely to be coincidental.
The lawyer has once described himself as “a fighter for a living” and shares many views with him.
“We have a lot of personality traits in common,” he said. “We have a lot of similar views about things that are at least touch points that we can connect upon.”
Even though the two still sometimes have disagreements, the Washington Post described him as “one of Musk’s closest lieutenants, confidants, and consiglieres” and said he is now playing a key role in Twitter’s overhaul.
Another media outlet, Vanity Fair, quoted him talking about Twitter, “You realize the geopolitical significance, the significance across so many different things, thought, speech, the community of viewpoints. You realize it may actually be the most interesting and important company in the world.”
Given his admiration for Twitter, it should come as no surprise that he has already issued legal threats to Mark Zuckerberg in response to the release of Threads.
How that story plays out remains to be seen.
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