Kathaleen McCormick’s no-nonsense rulings have earned the Tesla chief’s ire -— and the corporate law world’s respect

Few people in the world have the power to order around Elon Musk. One of them is a soft-spoken, small-town-raised, 44-year-old Delaware judge named Kathaleen McCormick.

When the planet’s richest person tried to back out of buying Twitter in 2022, it was McCormick who stood in the way, taking a no-nonsense approach to a lawsuit that ended with Musk backing down and completing the deal. And last month, it was McCormick who issued a landmark ruling against Musk in a Tesla shareholder lawsuit that could end up costing him some $50 billion and his title as the world’s richest person.

The decision, which found that Musk’s control over Tesla’s board led it to grant him an unfairly lavish compensation deal, left Musk fuming. “Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware,” he posted on X, before pledging to hold a vote of Tesla shareholders on moving the company’s incorporation to Texas. The case is ongoing, with the two sides set to wrangle next over attorneys’ fees before a likely appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court later this year.

While Tesla has yet to hold a shareholder vote, Musk announced Tuesday that he has filed to move the incorporation of his privately held space company, SpaceX, from Delaware to Texas.

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