
(Photo by Diego Donamaria/Getty Images for SXSW)
Remember when Elon Musk was a gilded boy wonder who could do no wrong? Yeah, neither do we. After mortally botching the merger agreement (Opens in a new window) to make his online goof into a $44B reality, Musk enjoyed the greatest destruction of wealth in human history (Opens in a new window). Twitter’s transition to a TaaS company (Trolling as a Service) has hemorrhaged cash (Opens in a new window) and users (Opens in a new window), while Musk has gone around trying to publicly fire a guy with muscular dystrophy for doing “no actual work (Opens in a new window).”
As you might imagine… this did not work out for Elon (Opens in a new window).

Meet Me At ILTACON: Opus 2 And AI Workbench (Opens in a new window)
Swing by Booth 800 for a look at the latest in AI-powered case management.
Haha this dude just got Elon to fire him publically, trip a termination buy out clause in his $100M contract as an acquired founder, and sunk Musk to his eyeballs in employment law liability.
Might be the best outro if all time.
— banjo finn (@SimplePhishin) March 7, 2023 (Opens in a new window)
Most Twitter employees do not enjoy a $100 million severance clause. But there are a lot of Twitter employees getting laid off and Twitter has made some promises about severance that are, shall we say, not materializing at the moment (Opens in a new window).

Paying for Law School in 2025: A Straight-Talk Playbook (Opens in a new window)
Juno has consistently secured the best private loan deals for students at the Top MBA programs since 2018—now they’re bringing that same offer to law students, at no cost. Students can check their personalized offers at juno.us/atl This article is for general information only and is not personal financial advice.
Since everyone at Twitter exists in a modified Schrödinger’s Cat scenario as both employed and unemployed until the probability wave collapses upon the 50-50 shot of Musk approving of the latest Bored Ape, now might be a good time to discover what’s really in your contracts.
As it happens, Zuva (Opens in a new window), the artificial intelligence-driven contract analysis tool, just dropped a new option this week that can help employees — at Twitter or anywhere else — figure that out. And it’s totally free! Zuva created a widget (Opens in a new window) allowing folks to drag over a contract and leverage the technology behind Zuva’s commercial grade tools. Here’s a version for severance agreements (Opens in a new window).
There’s a whole set up to this announcement video that you can check out, but this embed jumps to a bit where you can quickly see the product in action:
While law firms ultimately will want the more robust version, there’s a lot of marketing potential in the free option. Put out a post about, say, “things you should know about non-compete agreements” and let potential clients run their contracts through and decide, “oh, wow, I really need to call this lawyer now.”
Presumably, Halli Thorleifsson was well aware of the $100 million severance clause in his deal, but most folks don’t know as much about what’s in their deals. Those are the folks who might sit on their rights out of ignorance. Artificial intelligence might not be replacing lawyers any time soon, but it might be a good way of connecting lawyers to clients.
Earlier: If The Wrongful Termination Lawsuit Doesn’t Get Elon Musk, The Dip In Stock Will (Opens in a new window)
Twitter Complaint Demonstrates That Every Lawyer, Everywhere, Always Is Smarter Than Elon Musk (Opens in a new window)
Joe Patrice (Opens in a new window) is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer (Opens in a new window). Feel free to email (Opens in a new window) any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter (Opens in a new window) if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search (Opens in a new window).