David Boies

David Boies (born March 11, 1941) is an American lawyer and chairman of the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner LLP.

Boies rose to national prominence for three major cases: leading the U.S. federal government's successful prosecution of Microsoft in United States v. Microsoft Corp., his unsuccessful representation of Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore in Bush v. Gore, and for successful representation of the plaintiff in Hollingsworth v. Perry, which invalidated California Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage.

Boies has also represented various clients in US lawsuits, including Theranos, tobacco companies, Harvey Weinstein, and Jeffrey Epstein's victims including Virginia Roberts Giuffre.

Boies was born in Sycamore, Illinois, to two teachers, and raised in a farming community.

He has four siblings.

His first job was when he was 10 years old—a paper route with 120 customers.

Boies has dyslexia and he did not learn to read until the third grade.

Journalist Malcolm Gladwell has described the unique processes of reading and learning Boies experienced due to his dyslexia.

Boies's mother, for instance, would read stories to him when he was a child and Boies would memorize them because he could not follow the words on the page.

He left the firm within 48 hours of being informed of the client's objection and created his own firm with his friend Jonathan Schiller, now known as Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP. It is currently rated 23rd in "overall prestige" and 15th among New York law firms by Vault.com, a website on legal career information.

In 1954, the family moved to California.

Boies graduated from Fullerton Union High School in Fullerton, California.

Boies attended the University of Redlands from 1960 to 1962, received a B.S. degree from Northwestern University in 1964, a J.D. degree magna cum laude from Yale Law School in 1966 and an LL.M. degree from New York University School of Law 1967; he was awarded an honorary LL.D. from the University of Redlands in 2000.

He currently serves on the board of trustees of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, which is a museum dedicated to the U.S. Constitution.

Boies was an attorney at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he started upon law school graduation in 1966 and became a partner in 1973.

He left Cravath in 1997 when a major client objected to his representation of the New York Yankees even though the firm itself had found no conflict.

Boies helped Weinstein fend off journalist Ken Auletta's inquiry into Weinstein's alleged rape of Rowena Chiu at the Venice Film Festival in 1998.

Rose McGowan claimed that Jennifer Siebel Newsom attempted to arrange a deal between her and Boies in an attempt to make her stay quiet about her allegations against Harvey Weinstein whom Boies was representing at the time.

In 2017, Boies' firm reportedly directed the Israeli private intelligence company Black Cube to spy on alleged victims of Harvey Weinstein's sexual abuse and on reporters who were investigating Weinstein's actions.

Over the course of a year, Weinstein had Black Cube and other agencies "target", or collect information on, dozens of individuals, and compile psychological profiles that sometimes focused on their personal or sexual histories.

"Boies personally signed the contract directing Black Cube to attempt to uncover information that would stop the publication of a Times story about Weinstein's abuses, while his firm was also representing the Times, including in a libel case."

Months after Cyrus Vance Jr.. dropped an investigation into a sexual assault allegation against Harvey Weinstein he received a $10,000 donation from Boies who was representing Weinstein at the time.

Andrew Cuomo opened an investigation into Vance's handling of the Weinstein probe.

However, after receiving a $25,000 campaign donation from Boies' firm Cuomo ended the investigation.

Boies' firm was representing The New York Times at the same time.

A few days after The New Yorker broke the story "Harvey Weinstein's Army of Spies", The New York Times announced it had "terminated its relationship" with Boies' firm.

According to its contract with Weinstein, Black Cube's assignment had been to kill the paper's negative reporting on Weinstein.

Boies involvement in defending Weinstein received criticism from New York (magazine), and Bloomberg Businessweek.

In 2021, several attorneys resigned from Boies Schiller Flexner citing Boies defence of Weinstein as one of the reasons.

Boies features prominently in Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, a nonfiction book by The Wall Street Journal investigative reporter John Carreyrou about fraud at the blood testing company Theranos.

In Carreyrou's reporting, Boies, along with lawyers Heather King and Michael Brille, and his firm are described as protecting the startup using surveillance of witnesses and journalists, weaponized use of non-disclosure agreements and affidavits, intimidation tactics, and other heavy-handed practices.

Boies Schiller Flexner LLP is portrayed by Carreyrou as acting as an extension of Theranos, including the use of the law firm's New York offices for hosting promotional meetings such as a faked blood test administered to Fortune writer Roger Parloff.

According to Carreyrou, Boies agreed to be paid for his firm's work in Theranos stock, which he expected to grow dramatically in value.

He also served on the Theranos board of directors, raising questions about conflicts of interest.

Boies' participation in and support for Theranos directly contributed to the misleading treatment of Walgreen patients, potentially resulting, cited within the report on Theranos by the federal agency CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services), in "serious injury or harm, or death".

Boies owns a home in Westchester County, New York, Hawk and Horse Vineyards in Northern California, an oceangoing yacht, and a large wine collection.

Boies is dyslexic.

He is frequently described as having a photographic memory that enables him to recite exact text, page numbers, and legal exhibits.

Colleagues attribute his courtroom success in part to this ability.

David and Mary Boies also fund the "Mary and David Boies Fellowships" for foreign students at the Harvard Kennedy School.