As the public health crisis fuels an economic one, more and more companies find themselves on the brink. Corporate crises bring a barrage of questions. Employees worry about their jobs. Shareholders worry about their investments. Regulators ask whether the company was prepared. And everyone wants to know the plan. The questions are many, and tough.

I joined Theranos to help answer them. I became its general counsel in late 2016, in the midst of a crisis over the company’s blood-testing technology. Media exposés had prompted investor outrage, government investigations and hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuits.