Alex Feerst, Neuralink general counsel (Courtesy photo)

A neurotechnology company founded by Tesla’s chief executive officer, Elon Musk, has hired a general counsel.

Alex Feerst joined Neuralink Corp. as general counsel in July, according to his LinkedIn profile. That’s the same month the San Francisco-based company announced it developed electrode “threads” that could advance human brain-computer machine interface technology.

If he stays on board, Feerst could be the in-house lawyer to guide Neuralink through its efforts to secure U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval, a process the company hopes to start as early as 2020. Neither Feerst nor Neuralink representatives responded to request for comment on his hire.

Neuralink is Feerst’s second in-house tech role. He most recently spent four years as head of legal for online publishing company Medium. In that role, he led Medium’s legal, trust and safety and policy teams, which included work with the platform’s content moderators.

He told attendees at a Santa Clara University School of Law High Tech Law Institute content moderation conference last year that Medium rotated staff from across the company into moderator roles, giving more employees insight on trust and safety and providing new insights.

“Trust and safety and content moderation is a field that, if you don’t have gender and ethnic and other [types of diversity], you can’t do it,” Feerst said at the conference. “Because you don’t have enough perspective to generate the cultural competencies, and, most importantly, you don’t know what you don’t know.”

Medium did not immediately respond to request for comment. The company’s posting for a new general counsel is still online, calling for an “experienced internet lawyer” to oversee legal, including litigation, and advise on business strategies.

Before heading up Medium’s legal team, Feerst spent two years as an associate at boutique firm Durie Tangri following another two years at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. He also has been a fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Internet and Society twice, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Feerst has interned for both Justice Sonia Sotomayor during her time as a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Judge Barbara Jones in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

He spent one year as an assistant professor at Macalester College before starting his legal career. Feerst holds a juris doctor from Columbia Law School and a Ph.D. from Duke University.