Dorothy Atkins Profile picture
Senior reporter @Law360 covering trials and then some. My opinions are my own IP and my tweets aren’t copy edited. Please don't sue or troll the messenger.
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Jan 20, 2023 34 tweets 6 min read
Morning! I'm covering the super rare class action securities trial against Elon Musk and Tesla today over Musk's 2018 tweets about taking Tesla private at $420 per share. Openings were earlier this week and Musk is expected to take the stand at some point - prob not today though. Today's the 2nd day of trial, and class rep Tim Fries is on the stand. He says he lost $5k after investing in Tesla following Elon Musk's false tweet that he had secured funding to take Tesla private. ICYMI, my colleague @bonnieeslinger covered openings. law360.com/articles/15668…
Dec 20, 2022 40 tweets 7 min read
Good morning from San Jose! I'm waiting outside Judge Ed Davila's courtroom to cover the last day of the high-stakes hearing over the FTC's bid to block Meta's merger with VR app maker Within. Mark Zuckerberg just walked down the hallway. Looks like he'll be taking the stand. The terms of Meta's deal haven't been publicly disclosed, but Judge Davila basically needs to decide whether to grant the FTC's request to block it by Dec. 31. Here's my latest recap of the legal fight over antitrust claims in the VR industry. law360.com/articles/15596…
Dec 19, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
I'm in San Jose for another day of the hearing over the FTC's bid to block Meta from buying VR fitness-app maker Within. Meta's CTO Andrew "Boz" Bosworth is on the stand, and the judge just warned folks there's no recording allowed and there's a U.S. Marshall here if they do. I won't be live tweeting Boz's testimony unless something super notable happens, but today is day 6 of the 7 day hearing, which so far has been a lot of testimony about the future of Facebook, VR, Mark Zuckerberg's goals and (perhaps inevitably) Pokemon. law360.com/articles/15593…
Dec 7, 2022 47 tweets 7 min read
Good morning from San Jose! I’m waiting outside Judge Ed Davila’s courtroom for Sunny Balwani’s sentencing to start. The court is handing out tokens again to get a seat (the numbers don’t seem to matter), even though there’s not really a crowd here. Image Balwani and his Orrick attorneys just arrived to the courthouse and went into a room adjacent to Judge Davila's courtroom. He was not smiling.
Nov 18, 2022 74 tweets 12 min read
Good morning from San Jose! It’s 5:40 a.m. and I’m wide awake, waiting outside the San Jose federal courthouse for Elizabeth Holmes’ sentencing hearing, which is set to begin in just over 4 hours. I’m the 30th person here. Standby for tweets… I spoke to a lotta white collar attorneys yesterday about what we should expect today. They predict Elizabeth Holmes will get b/w 5-10 years, which is less than prosecutors' 15-year request and more than Holmes' home confinement bid. Read all about it: law360.com/articles/15505…
Oct 17, 2022 32 tweets 5 min read
Good morning from San Jose! A year ago we were half-way through Elizabeth Holmes' criminal fraud trial & ex-Theranos lab director Adam Rosendorff's 6-day exam had wrapped. Today he's back on the stand for an evidentiary hearing into alleged gov't misconduct. Stand by for tweets! Seasons shift, years pass, presidential administrations change, pandemics come and go, but it is October 2022 and here I am still covering Elizabeth Holmes' criminal fraud case before the trial court.
Jul 7, 2022 39 tweets 6 min read
Good morning from San Jose! Last night, the courthouse PIO sent out an incorrect email telling everybody the jury isn't deliberating today. They are. Only a few of us reporters are here waiting for the verdict at the moment. Let's see if day 5 is the charm! The jury has been deliberating for about an hour, but no news yet. Word is that one juror brought a box of donuts. Meanwhile, the PIO has definitely lost a few friends w/ that incorrect email. Stressed out reporters keep trickling into the courthouse hallway in disbelief over it.
Jul 6, 2022 15 tweets 3 min read
Good morning from San Jose! It's day 4 of jury deliberations in Sunny Balwani's criminal fraud trial. The jury began deliberating about 30 minutes ago, and it's quiet in the courthouse hallways. Will we get a verdict today? A few jurors left for a lunch break but they just came back with coffees. We could all use a few cups (or pints) of those as we wait!
Jul 5, 2022 6 tweets 2 min read
Happy 5th of July! I'm in San Jose for day 3 of jury deliberations in Sunny Balwani's criminal fraud trial. The jury began deliberating about 30 minutes ago and it's been quiet ever since. Who thinks today's the day for a verdict? In other news, my dog survived the night of fireworks, although neither of us got a whole lotta sleep. Image
Jan 3, 2022 59 tweets 9 min read
Good morning and happy New Year from a sunny San Jose! I'm back in the courthouse waiting for a verdict in Elizabeth Holmes' criminal fraud trial. Is the 7th day of deliberations gonna be the day? NEWS! The court received a jury note. A proceeding will be held at 10:45 a.m. (In about 30 mins) Standby
Jan 2, 2022 8 tweets 3 min read
Most folks follow me b/c of my Elizabeth Holmes trial coverage, but I covered 9 other trials in 2021 - a lot for any year.

Here's a 🧵of my fave stories from those trials, starting w/ Apple CEO Tim Cook's testimony in Epic Game's antitrust bench trial. law360.com/articles/13871… A jury convicted an ex-Netflix executive of money laundering and bribery for accepting stock options, cash and gifts from vendors in exchange for lucrative contracts. The exec got 2.5 years in prison, and he's fighting the conviction on appeal.
law360.com/articles/13789…
Dec 16, 2021 84 tweets 13 min read
Good morning from a rainy San Jose! It’s almost 7 am and the line to get into the courthouse for closings in Elizabeth Holmes criminal fraud trial is so long that folks are lined up outside courthouse gates. I suspect court staff will turn away some people today. Word is there were about 10 people outside the courthouse before 5 am who were paid via TaskRabbit $50 per hour each to sit and wait in line in the rain to reserve seats for others in the main courtroom. It’s unclear who paid them. Woo, capitalism!
Dec 10, 2021 29 tweets 5 min read
Good morning from a sunny San Jose! I'm here for day 2 of Elizabeth Holmes' charging conference. Like last time, there's no line to get inside. I was the 2nd person here today. The 1st person was a press guy who said he got here at 4 am thinking there'd be a crowd. He was wrong. A few more press folks have arrived for today's hearing. Elizabeth Holmes is in the courtroom along with her mom and partner. Looking at the docket, the gov't hasn't filed its motion asking the judge to strike Holmes' abuse testimony yet. I imagine we'll hear an update on that.
Dec 8, 2021 37 tweets 6 min read
Good morning! I’m in San Jose where skies are clear and Elizabeth Holmes’ examination in her criminal fraud trial is expected to wrap. It’s unclear who, if anyone, will be called as the next witness. Funny enough, the line to get inside the courthouse isn’t so formidable today. The jury is in the courtroom. There's no pre-trial arguments this morning, so we'll be going straight into Holmes' redirect, which is estimated to take about 30 mins.
Dec 7, 2021 79 tweets 13 min read
Good morning from a wet San Jose! Today is potentially the last day of Elizabeth Holmes’ cross in her criminal fraud trial, and there is - of course - a line to get inside. People are debating whether the defense will rest after Holmes. Stay tuned to find out! Judge Ed Davila is on the bench, and Elizabeth Holmes is in the courtroom. There was a delay in getting the audio up in the overflow courtroom, of course, but it's working now. The parties are arguing over admitting some new documents during trial.
Dec 3, 2021 23 tweets 4 min read
I’m in San Jose for Elizabeth Holmes’ charging conference & a hearing on jury instructions, which apparently no one cares about. There’s no line, no overflow room, and it’s the 1st time I got the 1st ticket inside. (The security guard told me I could add it to my collection lolz) Holmes' counsel have raised a few objections to the gov't's proposed jury instructions, which are mostly based on the 9th Circuit model instructions. They argue that the instructions don't do enough to explain "presumed innocent" and the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard.
Nov 30, 2021 89 tweets 14 min read
Good morning from San Jose. I’m here for day 1 of Elizabeth Holmes’ cross examination in her criminal fraud trial and the line to get inside the courthouse is slightly longer than yesterday. Tweets are comin’, standby… Image I'm in the overflow courtroom, and the clerk is here with extra signs and barriers so that nobody messes with the court's technology if it stops working. Apparently, she got wind of a reporter - a local hero in these parts - who fixed the audio when it went down the other day.
Nov 29, 2021 82 tweets 14 min read
Good morning from San Jose! It’s after 6 a.m. and the line to get inside the courthouse for day 4 of Elizabeth Holmes’ examination isn’t so bad. (Hallelujah.) Standby for tweets! Trial doesn't start until 10, but there'll be a hearing at 9 over Holmes' request to admit certain statements that Sunny Balwani made in civil litigation during the SEC's probe into Theranos -- even though his attys say he plans to plead the 5th. Notably missing is abuse claims.
Nov 23, 2021 87 tweets 13 min read
Holmes says she had convos with Pfizer execs after 2009 to counter ex-Pfizer scientist Shane Weber's testimony that Pfizer had no significant dealings w/ the startup after he concluded its tests weren't believable. (ICYMI here's my recap of his testimony) law360.com/articles/14336… Holmes again says that in 2010 she thought Theranos' 4.0 Edison "could run any test." Her attorney points to an email Ian Gibbons wrote her in Feb 2010 stating “Essentially all [analyte tests] are possible in the proposed system." She thought that meant they could do the tests.
Nov 23, 2021 9 tweets 3 min read
Good morning from a cold San Jose! It’s just after 4:30 a.m. and I’m the 32nd person in line to get into the courthouse for day 3 of Elizabeth Holmes testimony. The woman who is keeping a list of newcomers says there are more people here today at 4:30 than yesterday. Image There are three observers with a briefcase and a sign who set up a new business outside the courthouse for Holmes’ trial. “Wanna buy a blonde wig?” they ask me. ImageImage
Nov 22, 2021 55 tweets 9 min read
Good morning from San Jose! It’s 4 a.m. and I’m outside the courthouse for day 2 of Elizabeth Holmes’ testimony in her criminal fraud trial along a 16 other folks who got here before me. I’ll be pounding coffee for the next 5 hours as we wait to get inside. Standby for tweets! John Carreyrou just arrived and the line has grown to 25 folks. Nearly everyone here is media. T-minus ~4.5 hours until trial starts and my coffee might as well be water at this point.