R

| SEVENTEEN |

Fame

ichard and Joe Fuisz sat warily across from David Boies and
one of his partners at a table in the lobby lounge of San Jose’s
Fairmont hotel. It was a Sunday evening in the middle of
March and the usually bustling lounge’s two grand pianos were quiet,
allowing the four men to speak without raising their voices. Boies,
looking relaxed and dapper in a navy blazer and his signature black
sneakers, had called the meeting to discuss settling the litigation that
had pitted the Fuiszes against Theranos for the past two and a half
years.

Initially determined to fight the lawsuit to the bitter end, Richard
and Joe were tired and battered. The trial had started a few days
earlier at the federal courthouse down the street and the extent to
which they were outgunned had fully dawned on them. Unhappy with
their lawyers and their mounting legal costs, they had gone “pro se”
several months earlier. What had seemed then like a reasonable
decision now looked foolish: Joe, a patent attorney who had never
tried a case, was no match for the country’s best litigator and his army
of associates.

The death of Ian Gibbons had also been a big setback. It briefly
looked like they might be able to make up for it by calling his widow,
Rochelle, as a witness. After Richard managed to make contact with
her, Rochelle told him that Elizabeth had tried to bully Ian into not
testifying and that Ian thought she was dishonest. But the judge
overseeing the case had denied the Fuiszes’ late motion to call
Rochelle to the stand.