The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled Thursday that Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann can hire as a partner Jorge G. Tenreiro, who held a number of positions at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including chief litigation counsel, and, most recently, served in the agency’s Office of Information Technology.
In doing so, U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein dismissed the argument advanced by defendant Elon Musk that the “extremely short time” that elapsed between the filing of the SEC action and Tenreiro’s outreach to BLB&G, which is lead counsel for the plaintiff, the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System, created an “appearance of impropriety.”