Boies, David 1941-

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BOIES, David 1941-

PERSONAL: Born March 11, 1941 (one source cites 1942), in Marengo, IL; son of teachers; married Caryl Elwell (divorced); married Judith Daynard (divorced); married Mary McInnis; children: Caryl, Christopher, Jonathan, David, two others. Education: Northwestern University, B.S., 1964; Yale University, L.L.B. (magna cum laude), 1967; New York University, L.L.M., 1967; University of Redlands, L.L.D., 2000.

ADDRESSES: Office—Boies, Schiller, & Flexner, 333 Main St., Armonk, NY 10504; fax: 914-749-8300. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Cravath, Swaine & Moore, New York, NY, associate, 1966–72 partner, 1973–77, 1980–97; U.S. Senate Anti-Trust Subcommittee, Washington, DC, chief counsel and staff director, 1978; U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee, chief counsel and staff director, 1979; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Washington, DC, counsel, 1991–93; Boies, Schiller & Flexner, Armonk, NY, founder, 1997–. Special trial counsel, U.S. Department of Justice, 1998–2000.

MEMBER: Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS: Milton Gould Award for Outstanding Oral Advocacy; Lifetime Achievement Award, Learning Disability Access Foundation; Outstanding Learning Disabled Achievers Award, Lab School of Washington; William Brennan Award, University of Virginia; named Lawyer of the Year, National Law Journal, 1999.

WRITINGS:

Courting Justice: From New York Yankees vs. Major League Baseball to Bush vs. Gore, 1997–2000, Miramax Books (New York, NY), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: Probably best known for his role as counsel for the Al Gore presidential campaign in the bitter struggle over the counting of Florida's ballots, David Boies was also chief counsel in prominent cases involving the New York Yankees, Microsoft, and other powerful interests. In Courting Justice: From New York Yankees vs. Major League Baseball to Bush vs. Gore, 1997–2000 he provides an insider's look at some of these hotly contested legal battles. In doing so, he gives lawyers and the general public a comprehensive view of the legal issues involved, but also a look at the politics, power plays, and extra-legal maneuvering that plays such a large part in high-profile cases. He also provides some insight into the qualities and ambition that have taken him from a small Illinois town to the highest reaches of his profession.

After a brief chronicle of his life story, including his two divorces and his struggle with dyslexia, Boies focuses on the major cases that established his reputation, beginning with New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner's fight with Major League Baseball over marketing rights. Despite ample Supreme Court precedent exempting major league baseball from antitrust legislation, that seemed to doom the case, Boies won and the Yankees gained exclusive licensing rights to their merchandise without giving a share to Major League Baseball. On a personal note, Boies was forced to leave the prestigious firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, which represented one of the defendants in the case, but this setback only inspired him to found his own highly successful firm. From there he has gone on to wage tough legal battles against wealthy and powerful concerns, such as W.R. Grace, Sotheby's and Christie's auction houses, and most famously, Microsoft. Then came Bush v. Gore, a dramatic and very public fight over the proper counting of Florida ballots that found its way to the U.S. Supreme Court and ultimately decided the U.S. presidency. Boies provides his own analysis of these cases, and develops for current and aspiring lawyers a list of suggestions on how to approach such complex, controversial, and public cases.

Writing in Fortune, reviewer Roger Parloff noted that Courting Justice echoes Boies's "lucid, understated style and are informed by his matchless analytical powers, as penetrating and comprehensive as an MRI." Recorder contributor Susan Beck acknowledged that "Boies elucidates the facts and legal issues with all the care that he would put into a brief." However, she felt that "as a writer, Boies hasn't yet learned—or isn't able—to break out of a lawyer's mind-set. Most glaringly, Boies fails to bring people or events to life on the page. It might seem impossible to render Steinbrenner colorless, but Boies succeeds." In contrast, Texas Lawyer contributor Bruce Fein found Courting Justice "a mercury-footed and engaging chronicle of the landmark cases in his career. The prose is singularly lucid and approachable, eschewing the sophomoric and the esoteric."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Boies, David, Courting Justice: From New York Yankees vs. Major League Baseball to Bush vs. Gore, 1997–2000, Miramax Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Newsmakers, Volume 1, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 2002.

PERIODICALS

Broward Daily Business Review, May 21, 2004, Laurie Cunningham, "David Boies Cleared of Ethics Charge"; October 18, 2004, Julie Kay, "Boies and Book"; February 16, 2005, Dan Lynch, "David Boies on Politics and the Need to Listen."

CEO Wire (transcript of "Lou Dobbs Tonight"), October 15, 2004, appearance by David Boies.

Finance Wire (transcript of "Charlie Rose Show"), April 4, 2005, "A Conversation with David Boies."

Forbes Global, December 20, 2004, Tomas Kellner, "I Want My TV: Ex-Media Mogul Leo Kirch Asks David Boies to Win Back His Empire," p. 24.

Fortune, October 4, 2004, Roger Parloff, review of Courting Justice: From New York Yankees vs. Major League Baseball to Bush vs. Gore, 1997–2000, p. 50.

Recorder, December 17, 2004, Susan Beck, "A Lifeless Life Story."

Texas Lawyer, December 13, 2004, Bruce Fein, "Boies' Life."