Elon Musk’s famous lawyer who had key role in Twitter layoffs

American lawyer Alex Spiro, who counts celebrities like Naomi Osaka and Jay-Z among his clients, is now one of the key figures in Elon Musk's overhaul of Twitter.

Having represented Musk for a long time, he is now working with the billionaire at his newest acquisition -- carrying out talks about job cuts and generally overseeing the legal and trust and safety teams, The Washington Post reported.

Twitter has laid off roughly half of its staff across countries -- a delicate task that involved sending notices that would not conflict with local laws.

Spiro was also at the forefront of the legal battle between Musk and Twitter, started by the former trying to back out of buying the social network for $44 billion.

Spiro has a reputation of being outspoken and clashing with other litigators, which fits well with Musk's wish of having “street fighters” as his lawyers, Bloomberg reported.

He is a partner at Quinn Emanuel -- one of the world's biggest law firms specialising in arbitration and business litigation.

Individually, Spiro has handled a wide range of matters --  financial, intellectual property, securities, bankruptcy and even defamation.

He is the same attorney who defended Musk in a defamation suit filed against him in 2018 by a diver involved in rescue the of children trapped in a Thailand cave.

He has also been a lecturer at Harvard Law School -- his alma mater and is part of the boards of several public and private companies.

Spiro's academic record includes studying law at Harvard University and psychology at Tufts.