- A UCLA law professor is teaching a class called the "Law of Elon Musk."
- The course will follow a slew of corporate law cases involving the billionaire.
Elon Musk's legal battles have become fodder for law students.
Stephen Bainbridge, a corporate law professor at the University of California Los Angeles, has launched a class called the "Law of Elon Musk." The course will follow the billionaire's long history of corporate legal battles, including his ongoing battle with Twitter and a lawsuit over his complex CEO compensation package.
"As someone who manages an immense amount of other people's money, Musk constantly faces the temptation to pursue his own interests and goals rather than focusing on the welfare of those who have entrusted him with their savings," the course listing reads. "This course examines some of the ways in which law constrains (or fails to) Musk's divergences from shareholder interests."
Bainbridge and a spokesperson for Musk did not respond to a request for comment from Insider ahead of publication.
"I thought this would be a way of really grabbing students' attention," Bainbridge told New York Magazine.
Bainbridge told the publication that Musk has a propensity for "generating ideas that produce enormous amounts of value but who would be a pain in the butt as a client because he often leaps before he looks."
"Obviously I've never met the guy, but just observing him, he's not a process guy. He's also not a guy that you can control," Bainbridge said, adding that "it's clear that this is a guy who's willing to push the edge of the legal envelope and take risks in terms of legalities that most business people wouldn't."
Musk has been known to challenge authority. Most notably, the Tesla CEO has taken aim at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In April, the billionaire called the agency "bastards" for bringing fraud charges against him in 2018 over his tweets regarding taking Tesla private.
Now, the billionaire is trying to extricate himself from an agreement to buy Twitter for $44 billion after waiving his rights to due diligence.
Experts previously told Insider Musk's legal argument will be difficult to stand up in court. The case will go to trial in October.
"No M&A lawyers would recommend that their client do what Musk has done," Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, previously told Insider. "The only thing that explains this legal battle is that it's Elon Musk and he does things his own way."
Read New York Magazine's full interview with Bainbridge here.