A top securities lawyer has left Tesla Inc. for a general counsel role at startup Sonder.

The departure of Philip Rothenberg, who was a vice president of legal at the Palo Alto, California-based company, comes as Tesla faces increased scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Last month, the SEC sued Tesla's founder and chief executive officer Elon Musk in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for tweets claiming he had secured funding  to take Tesla private at $420 per share. Tesla settled the suit for $40 million and the agreement that Musk step down as chairman.