Elon Musk and Deposition Pressure
Today, we talk about deposition pressure, specifically, this real-life example of the “Elon Musk vs. Twitter” lawsuit.
Just to give you a little backstory, Elon Musk was supposed to buy Twitter, and then he decided to back out in July which prompted Twitter to file a lawsuit. On October 6, Elon Musk was scheduled to face a deposition, and then all of a sudden, a letter comes across from Elon Musk’s lawyer over to the other side, saying that he will follow through. He will do everything in the agreement, as long as they can stop the lawsuit.
This is a perfect example of how deposition pressure can make people stop and just want to end things quickly because they don’t want to face it.
It’s always a risky proposition to walk into a deposition, and that pressure can cause anybody to crumble – even a billionaire like Elon Musk. Therefore, preparation is key, no matter who you are.
In this episode, you will hear:
- How Elon’s letter disarmed Twitter
- Why Elon decided to stop the deposition
- The pressure that could come in a deposition
- Why rules and their enforcement are helpful for everybody
- Why preparing for deposition is very important
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Supporting Resources:
Here is a link to a short but brilliant analysis of Elon Musk deposition pressures: https://overcast.fm/+XutRyCFsg/01:2
Episode Credits:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their businesses and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Episode Transcript:
Elizabeth Larrick: Hello and welcome to a new episode of Trial Lawyer Prep with me, your host, Elizabeth Larrick.
Thank you so much for tuning into this podcast that is dedicated to trial lawyers who want to prepare their cases better, connect with their clients and connect with juries in the [00:01:00] courtroom. We have this episode today talking about deposition pressure and our real life example that is going on and then going on, which is the Elon Musk versus Twitter lawsuit, if you haven’t heard, which you may or may not have, if you have, just hang in there for some nuggets.
If you haven’t, let me just catch you up to speed. So Elon Musk was supposed to buy Twitter and he’d been talking about it. And then in June slash, maybe a little bit July, he backed out. So Twitter called in the team and filed a lawsuit. He’s been trying to enforce this agreement, this contract to buy it.
And what I’ve understood now is, of course, lots of discovery disputes and, but things really came to a head here recently around October 5th, October 6th, when Elon Musk was going to have to face a deposition and what [00:02:00] I love about these kind of high profile guys is the fact that they’re cases is we get excited, meaning we being like lawyers, like, Oh, what we do is in the news and the people are interested.
And if you’ll recall, we were all captivated. And I say we all, mostly fantastical news sources were captivated by the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial, which of course was televised. So it was very exciting. That’s when everybody who was even remotely called themself Leilanius was jumping up and down and.
videos and all that kind of stuff. And that’s cool. I think it’s helpful because it’s an opportunity to educate the public, especially on certain things like CAPS, which that’s what came out of the Johnny Depp versus Amber Heard situation and kind of a little bit of education there. And we get excited as lawyers to think like, Ooh, gosh, like how can we help other people understand what’s going on?
And that’s what we do. tuned me into was somebody had talked about this Deposition pressure and really what’s going on behind the scenes and in a [00:03:00] podcast episode which i’ll put a link to and in such a succinct manner, but It really shows there’s big education gap with people People not really always understanding what’s going on in the legal system.
So it makes us all excited and of course makes me super excited because I was doing deposition and specifically deposition prep. Let me just give you a little summary. So he’s supposed to go in to get his deposition and all of a sudden, boom. Stop. No way. A letter comes across the bow from Elon Musk’s lawyer over to the other side saying that he will follow through, he will do everything in the agreement as long as they can stop the lawsuit, like basic, yeah, stop the lawsuit, like no depots, no trial date.
And so we’re like, wow, what, what would all that, where would that come from? Because He is now being where a couple weeks after that happened, there hasn’t been really any information laid out about that. And of course, leads all of us to speculate, but I think most people in the [00:04:00] legal profession, especially people who do high profile business cases, and sometimes even the smaller things that I used to deal with, we would see deposition pressure really does make people stop.
and not want to face a deposition. And so they want to end things quickly. And that’s really what everyone is projecting about what’s happening or what happened with Elon Musk, that basically he sat down and went through deposition preparation. And being Elon Musk, he’s that’s super risky for him to sit down and have a lawyer question him because he’s got all kinds of complex and controversial matters.
And he’s not always the most truthful telling person, right? Like he still has these habits. Of lying and the way that this podcaster put it a luxury of being able to say anything until you’re under oath and like, Oh, I just love that so much because it’s true under oath, there’s set of rules. You got a court case going and I appreciate that for sure.
But what he [00:05:00] really got into was, hey, what is deposition prep? It’s a super uncomfortable where they hire a lawyer who’s never met Elon Musk, who more likely not has a background as a prosecutor, and basically comes in and puts the worst of the worst. and just grills them. Every bad document, every way he could look bad, every way he could lose his case, like they’re throwing it at him.
And we’re not talking about like, Oh, maybe for an hour or two, like I’m sure that they slogged it out for like several days because again, so many topics, so much behavior. I can only imagine the amount of documents that they have flying around and communications. And so going through all that and realizing, wow, like.
This is super risky. We can’t do it and pulling the plug on it. Now, the other kind of cool thing was they talked about and analyzed this letter. And I really appreciated that as well, which again was basically, Hey, I’ll do what you ask. [00:06:00] Let’s stop the lawsuit. And the way he described it was Basically disarming Twitter and it’s so true because they in this dealing with each other like Elon Musk has really not been very trustworthy and calling them to carpet a deposition and the trial was looming at that time on October 17th.
There he had a ton of leverage on him. I think most people projected that Elon Musk was going to lose this trial, but the other things that could have come out in that deposition, even more documents that maybe they were going to be disclosed or that Twitter had and that could surprise them with them, all those things were going to be made public.
And then probably again in the trial, which things that you don’t want to be public. And so, Transcribed What a great example of, yeah, this is $44 billion deal or million dollar deal to buy Twitter, and that’s not normal, what [00:07:00] we always deal with, but no matter who you are, it’s still a risky proposition to walk into a deposition and that pressure can cause anybody.
to crumble. And that’s one of the things they talked about was, well, the track record that Elon Musk had was to be testy, to be snarky, and when you know what that other person’s going to do in a deposition, of course you’re going to bait them into that behavior and then get them to make admissions or to say something dumb that doesn’t serve them at all.
So, I loved the very quick analysis of this, and I encourage you to listen to it. The link will be in the show notes. But I think it’s just a good reminder, one, the court system is good. Lawsuits are good. We are structured to have rules and have them enforced. And when they’re enforced, people act. And it’s helpful for everybody.
Like, people. Don’t care which side [00:08:00] you’re on. We need those things enforced. And to reiterate that point, the judge in this particular case gave Elon Musk a deadline and said, hey, if you don’t get this deal done by October 28th, by 5 p. m. Eastern, we got a little trial. We’re doing this thing. And that has so much power, again, just the pressure and all those things, but the court system works, the rules work, but we just gotta enforce them.
And it’s really helpful. And then also, position pressure happens to everybody. Preparation is key, no matter who you are. Elon Musk has to do it, right? Another good example, Oprah had to do it when she had to testify. It’s so vital, important, and especially this concept of role playing with hard hitting questions.
The worse the worse from a complete stranger, right? Somebody that you don’t know, haven’t seen before, don’t have any connection with the case. To [00:09:00] really get that good, thorough, understanding and also to analyze the risks that you may have. And that’s what they did here with Elon Musk. And they said, well, this is way too risky.
We can’t do this deposition. So anyhow, I encourage you to listen very quickly to the blog and grateful for you guys tuning in here today. If you enjoyed this, please rate and review on your favorite podcast platform, share it with any other trial lawyers who you know that may be interested. And until next time, thank you.