- Twitter's ex-CMO, Leslie Berland, is suing Elon Musk, saying she is owed $20 million in severance.
- The complainant says she was fired in "petty retribution" over an incident involving advertisers.
Twitter's former chief marketing officer, Leslie Berland, is suing Elon Musk, saying she is owed over $20 million in unpaid severance.
Berland was "suddenly" fired in November 2022, five days after Musk acquired the social media platform, now known as X, for $44 billion. According to court documents, she had held the position of CMO for seven years.
"Nobody told Ms. Berland the reason for her termination," her lawyers allege in the complaint, which was filed on November 1 in California's northern district court and Business Insider has seen.
Bloomberg Law first reported the lawsuit.
Though Berland says she was not officially told the reason for her dismissal, the claim accuses Musk of firing her in "petty retribution" for an incident involving Twitter's advertisers.
In the days following Musk's acquisition of Twitter, Berland was the only "primary Twitter executive" Musk was speaking to, and she was personally selected as the point person for his and his transition team's needs, the complaint says.
According to the complaint, on 31 October, Musk attended a meeting with advertisers during which he "went off script" and suggested re-instating Donald Trump's then-suspended Twitter account.
The documents state that a Twitter employee who was there on Bertrand's recommendation cautioned Musk against reinstating Trump in front of the advertisers, leaving him "embarrassed and angry."
"JP is not going to work out. Bad recommendation," Musk texted Berland in relation to the employee, the complaint says. Berland and the employee she recommended were fired a few hours later it said.
Under Twitter's Change of Control and Involuntary Termination Protection Policy, which was still in place at the time of her dismissal, she had not been fired "for Cause," according to the documents.
Berland claims she was wrongly denied about $20 million in benefits owed to her under Twitter's policy.
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Berland's lawsuit says that 26 days after her dismissal, she received a letter informing her that she had been fired "for Cause," which her lawyers state was an effort to avoid paying her benefits.
The complaint says that around six months later, Twitter provided her with more details about the reason for her firing, including that Twitter had been mismanaged prior to Musk's acquisition and that she had once traveled by charter plane to assist Musk, violating company policy.
Berland was appointed CMO of the telecoms company Verizon in 2024.
Musk is facing a number of lawsuits over his handling of Twitter during his first months as its owner.
Four senior Twitter officials, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, have filed lawsuits against Musk over their severance payments. They are collectively asking for $128 million.
Musk had sought to have these suits dismissed, but last week, California judge Maxine Chesney said they could proceed in a filing seen by Business Insider. Bloomberg first reported on the denial of Musk's attempt at dismissal.
In August, an employee in Ireland was awarded 550,000 euros (roughly $600,000) for unfair dismissal after he was fired for failing to respond to an email demanding an "extremely hardcore" work culture. Others are suing over claims involving unpaid IT bills and unpaid bonuses.
X has sued several advertisers over claims they conspired to boycott the platform.