Tesla Replaces General Advisor With Attorney

The electric car manufacturer Silicon Valley plans to replace Mr. Maron with Washington, D.C., lawyer Dane Butswinkas, who is head of Williams & Connolly. He will report directly to Mr. Musk.

A Tesla spokesman confirmed the plan and issued a statement on behalf of Mr. Butswinkas: "Tesla's mission is greater than the Tesla one critical for the future of the future." [1[ads1]9659006] "It's hard to identify a mission more timely, more important or more worth fighting for," he said in the statement.

A representative of the law firm did not respond immediately to a request for comment. Mr. Butswinkas did not respond immediately.

"Being a part of Tesla over the past five years has been the highlight of my career," Maron said in an email. "Tesla has been a family to me and I am extremely grateful to Elon, the board, the management team and everyone at Tesla to let me play a role in this incredible company."

Tesla did not give a reason for the departure, although the company said the plan for the transition began in July.

Herr. Maron joins a long list of senior executives to differ from Tesla in the last couple of years when the company is working under increasing pressure to roll out its model 3 – a cheaper one since Mr. Musk hopes to transform Tesla from a niche luxury brand into a mainstream player. Key managers in engineering, sales, human resources and PR have resigned.

Mr. Maron's departure is particularly remarkable, but given his long-standing relationship with Mr. Musk on some of the top management's most sensitive subjects. The lawyer came to Tesla in 2013 after working as Mr. Musk's divorce attorney and rose to the General Council position in 2014.

Tesla employed Mr. Butswinkas as a Foreign Minister this year when the car manufacturer treated the successor to Mr. Musk's August 7, Tweets announced that He considered taking the company privately and that he had secured funding for such a transaction.

The Securities and Exchange Commission later claimed that Mr. Musk misunderstood investors and attempted to remove him as an officer or director of any publicly traded company. Finally, the SEC and Mr. Musk reached a settlement in the matter. As a result, he had to go down as head of Tesla and not seek that position for three years. He is still CEO and board member.

Tesla also agreed to initiate a new audit of Mr. Musk's communication on topics that may be material and appoint two new independent directors by the end of the year.

Several legal cases have been filed by shareholders over August 7 tweets, in accordance with the company's regulations. Tesla has said the claims are missing profits.

Tesla is also reviewing the plans for Model 3 production. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has investigated whether Tesla misstated information about production of Model 3 dates back to early 2017, the Journal reported in October.

Mr. Butswinkas ends Tesla after a long career at Williams & Connolly. He joined the prestigious law firm in 1989 after graduating from the University of Virginia School of Law and has had a great career dealing with complex civil and criminal relationships.

During his tenure, Mr. Maron was particularly aggressive in attempting to fight the state governments around the United States who opposed Tesla from selling directly to consumers instead of third party franchisees.

Before Maron, Tesla went through three general councils from 2009 to 2012, then had no instead of more than two years.

In November, Phil Rothenberg, Legal Director of Tesla, who had experience with the SEC, went to become General Advisor at startup, called Sonder Inc., a platform for renting apartments to travelers online.

Write to Tim Higgins at Tim.Higgins@WSJ.com and Rebecca Ballhaus at Rebecca.Ballhaus@wsj.com