David Boies, 82, plans to leave chairman role at his law firm at the end of next year
David Boies is the chairman and a managing partner at Boies Schiller Flexner. He is planning to leave his role as chairman at the end of next year. Photo by Kathy Anderson/ABA Journal.
David Boies, the co-founder of Boies Schiller Flexner, is planning to leave his role as chairman at the end of next year, a time when he expects the law firm to be in better financial shape following a wave of lawyer exits and a decline in revenue.
Boies, 82, plans to remain a partner and will still be part of the firm’s executive committee, Law.com reports.
In an interview, Boies told Law.com that he might be reluctant to step down if the firm wasn’t doing well financially. The years 2023 and 2024 are looking up because the firm has won approval of class action settlements that will reap more than $3 billion for clients and about $200 million in fees for the firm.
Among the settled cases are lawsuits filed on behalf of multimillionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking victims against JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank and an antitrust class action against Blue Cross Blue Shield that settled for $2.67 billion. Boies Schiller was co-lead counsel in the antitrust case.
Currently, Boies Schiller has three co-managing partners: Sigrid McCawley, Matthew Schwartz and Alan Vickery. A vote on Boies’ replacement is scheduled for next month. The person chosen will work alongside Boies in 2024 in an “overlap” year.
Other publications with coverage include Bloomberg Law, Reuters and Law360.
Boies Schiller had only around 150 lawyers when the National Law Journal released survey results on the largest U.S. firms in June. That is down from a high of more than 320 lawyers. Gross revenues at the firm last year were $220 million, down from a high of $420 million.
Lawyer losses happened amid controversies stemming from Boies Schiller’s representation of film producer Harvey Weinstein, who was convicted of sex crimes, and the blood-testing company Theranos, founded by a woman who was convicted for defrauding investors.
Boies stressed the firm’s pro bono culture in his interview with Law.com. He said the firm has devoted more than $10 million in legal resources to pro bono, litigating on behalf of marriage equality and Medicaid access for children.
“One of the things that I’m most comfortable about now is I think that we have leadership that is committed not only to practicing law at the highest level but also maintaining the culture of the firm,” Boies said.
