After a month-long trial, a team from Hueston Hennigan led by John Hueston and Moez Kaba prevailed on Monday before a Los Angeles jury on behalf of the California Institute of Technology, fending off a suit by a whistleblower who claimed tens of millions of dollars in damages.

The ultra-prestigious university was sued in Los Angeles County Superior Court by former researcher Farshid Roumi, who alleged that he was fired for exposing misuse of government funds.

Kaba in an interview said Roumi was hired by Caltech to work on a project funded by the Department of Energy, but that the project failed.

The defense's overarching message to the jury was that Roumi “was unable or unwilling to put in the work to make the project successful, and the technology was difficult,” Kaba said. “Not every idea becomes an invention, not every start-up becomes a success.”

The Hueston Hennigan team, which also included associates Varun Behl, Joe Reiter and Michael Todisco, argued that Roumi's employment did not end due to retaliation, but because the funding dried up when the government pulled the plug on the project.

The jury was persuaded, deliberating for less than three hours before returning a full defense verdict.

Roumi was represented by Mark Quigley and Christian Nickerson of Greene Broillet & Wheeler, who previously won a $10 million settlement in a whistleblower retaliation case against the Regents of the University of California.

Quigley did not return a call seeking comment.