Philadelphia native and Temple Law School grad Greg Varallo was the lead lawyer in the case that brought down Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar compensation package at Tesla, write Ryan Felton and James Fanelli for The Wall Street Journal.

The suit with a single shareholder plaintiff, Richard Tornetta, was filed in 2018. It alleged that Musk, as the company’s chief executive, controlled the approval process and that investors, who later approved the package, were misled by the board.

The judge, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, found the process “deeply flawed,” and agreed on Tuesday to rescind the CEO’s package, valued at a maximum of $55.8 billion.

“This would be as though it never happened,” said Varallo of the board’s decision to award the package.

Varallo, a self-described “blue-collar kid” from Philadelphia, is a former corporate defense lawyer who has litigated hundreds of complex business disputes nationwide.

In 2019, he made the uncommon decision for an established defense lawyer to change course and start working for plaintiffs.

“This was an opportunity in a very entrepreneurial way, to do something entirely new, to work with people that I did know, but in an area that would require some new learning on my part,” he said.

Read more about Greg Varallo and the high-profile Musk case at The Wall Street Journal.

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