Tesla has reportedly lost its top lawyer for the third time in the past year

Mark Matousek

Dec 12, 2019, 21:32 IST

Tesla has reportedly lost its top lawyer for the third time in the past year

Former Tesla general counsel Jonathan Chang's LinkedIn profile.

Tesla's general counsel, Jonathan Chang, has left the company, Bloomberg's Dana Hull reported.
Chang's departure marks the third time a top lawyer at Tesla has left the electric-car maker in the past year.
Tesla is known for its high rate of executive turnover, which has exceeded that of other high-profile tech companies, according to an August research note from AllianceBernstein.
This year has also seen the departure of CTO JB Straubel, CFO Deepak Ahuja, and vice president of production Peter Hocholdinger.
Sign up for Business Insider's transportation newsletter, Shifting Gears, to get more stories like this in your inbox.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Tesla's general counsel, Jonathan Chang, has left the company, Bloomberg's Dana Hull reported.

Complimentary Tech Event

Transform talent with learning that works

Capability development is critical for businesses who want to push the envelope of innovation.Discover how business leaders are strategizing around building talent capabilities and empowering employee transformation.Know More

Chang's departure marks the third time Tesla's top lawyer has left the electric-car maker in the past year. Dane Butswinkas, Chang's predecessor, left the company in February after just two months in the role. Butswinkas followed Todd Maron, who held the position from 2014 until the end of 2018.

Chang's final day was December 6, according to Bloomberg's report. He joined Tesla in 2011, according to his LinkedIn profile, and will reportedly work next at SambaNova as its general counsel.

Tesla, Chang, and SambaNova did not immediately respond to Business Insider's requests for comment. Bloomberg reported that Tesla did not respond to its questions about Chang's departure and his replacement.

Chang's tenure as Tesla's general counsel overlapped with two high-profile legal issues: an allegation from the Securities and Exchange Commission that Tesla CEO Elon Musk had violated their 2018 settlement by tweeting a projection about the company's 2019 production numbers, and a lawsuit from Walmart alleging that Tesla failed to address issues with solar panels that caught fire. Both disputes ended in settlements.

Tesla is known for its high rate of executive turnover, which has exceeded that of other high-profile tech companies, according to an August research note from AllianceBernstein. This year has also seen the departure of CTO JB Straubel, CFO Deepak Ahuja, and vice president of production Peter Hocholdinger.

Read Bloomberg's full story here.

Are you a current or former Tesla employee? Do you have an opinion about what it's like to work there? Contact this reporter at mmatousek@businessinsider.com. You can ask for more secure methods of communication, like Signal or ProtonMail, by email or Twitter direct message.