Alex Spiro, Elon Musk's personal attorney, could be sanctioned over his conduct during a recent deposition with his high-profile client if the lawyer facing off against him in a legal battle would successfully file a lawsuit.
Musk's deposition happened last month for a lawsuit alleging him of boosting a conspiracy theory that falsely affiliated 22-year-old Ben Brody with a neo-Nazi group.
In a court filing dated Monday (Apr. 8), Brody's lawyer, Mark Bankston - known for representing the parents of a Sandy Hook victim and won a $45 million defamation case against Alex Jones - argued that Spiro had demonstrated "astonishingly unprofessional" behavior and "seriously overstepped his bounds" during the deposition, according to Bloomberg.
The lawyer wrote in his sanctions motion that Spiro repeatedly cut off Bankston's line of questioning and attempted to make fun of him.
In the motion, Bankston, a Texas attorney, claimed that Spiro was the only defense attorney present at the deposition even though he was not authorized to practice law in Texas. The motion indicated that in the Texas case, two other lawyers permitted to practice in the state also represented Musk.
In an emailed comment to Business Insider, Spiro - a partner at the New York office of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan - dismissed the motion against him.
"This is amateur hour," he said. "I understand this lawyer wants his 15 minutes of fame, but these shakedown tactics won't work."
If a judge agreed with the motion, a sanction on Spiro could result in a dressing down by the judge or potentially a fine.
Spiro initially attempted to prevent the publicizing of the deposition transcript, but a judge denied his motion.
In cases where defendants are deposed in a civil trial, things could often get contentious, and Spiro and Bankston have traded words during the case in question.
Both lawyers have been involved in some high-profile cases, with Spiro being Musk's go-to lawyer when he filed a lawsuit in 2019 after Musk called a diver who helped rescue a group of boys stranded in a cave in Thailand a "pedo guy."
Bankston did not immediately respond to reporters' requests for comment.
