[gaius]

I'm disgusted by these high-powered law firms using thuggish tactics to try to silence critics.

The actions of Boies law firm, as documented in the book, are particularly egregious. Worse still is that Boies himself has a track record of being super tech savvy; he’s litigated against Microsoft and Google. As he was a board member at Theranos, it stretches credulity that he wasn’t more aware of the deception. Paid in equity too, how is that not a conflict of interest? How is it even legal?

[maxxxxx]

I don't think it's a conflict of interest. They got paid by Theranos for their services.

But there should be some ethics about helping clients with a lot of money bullying people with no money. Reading about the way Theranos abused whistleblowers with the help of lawyers was infuriating. The little guy simply has no chance against this unless you are willing to risk everything.

[mrnobody_67]

He got paid in stock. $4.5m worth if I recall from the book

[fjsolwmv]

How is a conflict of interest to be paid by your client to represent their interests?

[gaius]

It hinges on how plausible the scenario is that you can be a board member with a history of effortlessly mastering complex technical concepts, and all around you are whistleblowers asserting that the technology is a fraud, in which case your equity is worthless, and you decide that the best course of action is to abuse the legal system to intimidate them into silence. It's documented in the book that the family of one whistleblower ran up massive debts defending themselves, and a key scientist was hounded into committing suicide. It's not mentioned in the book that any of the lawyers ever wondered if maybe there might be something in all these reports.

Anyway, read the book and draw your own conclusions about the characters involved.

[matthewdgreen]

It creates an environment where the attorney is incentivized to protect his/her own investment in the company, above and beyond representing the company's interest and the interest of the law.