Judge to Let Cooley Bow Out of Representing Elizabeth Holmes in Theranos Civil Case
The firm in late September asked to withdraw from a civil case in Arizona federal court, saying Holmes hasn't paid them in more than a year and likely won't be able to going forward.
November 07, 2019 at 11:49 PM
3 minute read
Elizabeth Anne Holmes, former CEO of the now defunct Theranos company. (Photo: Jason Doiy/ALM)
A federal judge overseeing civil litigation against blood-testing company Theranos has indicated he will let lawyers at Cooley who have been representing former CEO Elizabeth Holmes withdraw from the case.
In a motion filed on Sept. 30, Cooley chairman Stephen Neal, Palo Alto partner-in-charge John Dwyer and associate Jeffrey Lombard asked to bow out of the case, saying Holmes hasn't paid them for more than a year for their work on the case and likely never will.
Lead plaintiffs attorneys at Keller Rohrback and Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, who are pursuing claims of fraud and medical battery against Holmes, her company and Walgreens, filed court papers last month indicating that they didn't oppose Cooley's withdrawal. But they added that Holmes' lawyers at Cooley hadn't fulfilled a local rule requiring them to provide the plaintiffs with their client's last known residence and phone number prior to their release from the case.
Senior District Judge H. Russel Holland indicated in an order dated Tuesday and posted to the docket on Wednesday that, given the notoriety of the case, he would allow the Cooley lawyers to withdraw, provided they filed Holmes' email and last known address with the court under seal.
"For purposes of effecting routine communications, the court concludes that use of an email address for routine communications with Ms. Holmes will be appropriate as an alternative to a telephone number," Russel said in the ruling.
"Upon the filing of a notice by a Cooley attorney that the foregoing information (an email address and current physical address for Holmes) have been filed under seal, the court will grant counsel's motion to withdraw," wrote Holland, an Alaska-based judge who is overseeing the Theranos multidistrict litigation as a visiting judge in the District of Arizona.
A spokesperson for Cooley could not be reached for comment at the time of publication.
Holmes didn't respond to questions about the unpaid Cooley bills, as she was leaving a court appearance Monday in the criminal case pending against her in federal court in San Jose, according to a report from CNBC.
The criminal trial of Theranos' founders has been scheduled to start in the summer of 2020. At a pretrial hearing in June, Judge Edward Davila of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California set jury selection in the criminal case for July 28, 2020, with a trial to follow Aug. 4.
Read more:
In Theranos Civil Case, Cooley Says Elizabeth Holmes Has Growing Unpaid Legal Bill
Orrick Adds White-Collar Trio, Including Ex-Theranos COO's Lawyer
Judge Nudges Agencies to Hand Over Info to Theranos Defendants
Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes Indicted in Alleged Wire Fraud Scheme
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