An attorney-client privilege dispute between Elizabeth Holmes and Boies Schiller Flexner looms over the Theranos founder’s criminal fraud trial set to kick off Aug. 31, but attorneys say the saga also serves as a cautionary tale for the legal community.

In a trial expected to last about 13 weeks in the San Jose courtroom of U.S. District Judge Edward Davila of the Northern District of California, lawyers from Williams & Connolly and a San Francisco solo practitioner are set to defend Holmes against the government’s allegations that the former executive defrauded investors, doctors and patients with faulty blood-testing technology.