Musk’s legal battles intensify as Twitter’s ex-CMO sues over rejection

• Former Twitter CMO Leslie Berland is suing Elon Musk, claiming she is owed $20 million in severance pay.
• The complainant says she was fired because of “petty retaliation” for the incident with the advertisers.
• The same week that Berland filed, the former Twitter CEO was granted the go-ahead to pursue a similar lawsuit.

Former Twitter CMO Leslie Berland is suing Elon Musk, claiming she is owed more than $20 million in unpaid severance pay.

Berland was “abruptly” fired in November 2022, five days after Musk acquired a social networking platformnow known as X, for $44 billion. She served as CMO for seven years, according to court documents.

“No one informed Ms. Berland of the reason for her termination,” her attorneys allege in the complaint, which was filed Nov. 1 in the Northern District of California District Court and seen by Business Insider.

Bloomberg Law was the first to report the lawsuit.

While Berland says she was not officially told the reason for her dismissal, in the statement Musk accused her of being fired as “petty retaliation” for the incident involving Twitter advertisers.

In the days following Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, Berland was the only “senior Twitter executive” with whom Musk spoke, and she was personally selected as the point person for his needs and those of his transition team, the complaint said.

According to the complaint, on October 31, Musk attended a meeting with advertisers during which he “went off script” and offered recovery of Donald Trump then the Twitter account is suspended.

The documents say a Twitter employee, who was there on Bertrand’s recommendation, warned Musk against reinstating Trump in the presence of advertisers, leaving him “confused and angry.”

“JP won’t make it. Bad recommendation,” Musk wrote to Berland about the employee, the complaint states. Berland and the employee she recommended were fired a few hours later.

She was not fired “for cause,” according to Twitter’s Change of Control and Involuntary Termination Protection Policy, which was still in effect at the time of her firing, according to the documents.

Related stories

Berland alleges that she was wrongfully denied approximately $20 million in payments that she is entitled to under Twitter’s policy.

Twitter did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.

Berland’s lawsuit says 26 days after she was fired, she received a letter saying she was fired “for cause,” which her attorneys said was an attempt to avoid paying her benefits.

About six months later, Twitter provided her with more details about the reason for her firing, including that Twitter was mismanaged prior to Musk’s acquisition and that she once traveled on a chartered plane to help Musk in violation of company policy, the complaint says.

Berland was appointed director of marketing for the telecommunications company Verizon in 2024.

Musk is facing a number of lawsuits on how he managed Twitter during the first months of its ownership.

Four high-ranking Twitter officials, including former CEO Parag Agrawalfiled lawsuits against Musk over their severance pay. Together, they are asking for $128 million.

Musk sought to have those lawsuits dismissed, but last week California Judge Maxine Chesney said they could proceed with the case, which Business Insider has seen. This was first reported by Bloomberg about denying the attempt to release Musk.

In August, employee in Ireland was awarded €550,000 (approximately $600,000) for unfair dismissal after he was fired for failing to respond to an email demanding an “extremely rigid” work culture. Others are suing for claims related to unpaid IT bills and unpaid premiums.

X has sued several advertisers over claims that they conspired to boycott the platform.