- Managing Partners: David Boies, Jonathan D Schiller, Donald L Flexner
- Number of partners: 97
- Number of other lawyers: 167
Firm Overview:
Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, based in New York City, has over 230 lawyers practicing in offices strategically located throughout the United States. The firm has tried more than 350 cases before juries and judges in federal and state courts throughout the United States. The firm regularly serves as lead counsel on complex, high profile global matters. David Boies was lead counsel for the United States in United States v Microsoft, and BSF has been lead counsel in many leading cases including for Oracle in copyright infringement litigation against SAP; for Barclays in bankruptcy litigation stemming from Barclays’ acquisition of Lehman Brothers’ North American operations; for Maurice ‘Hank’ Greenberg, founder of AIG, in multiple matters against AIG; for American Express against Visa and Mastercard; for NASCAR in major antitrust suits; for plaintiffs in Perry v Brown, the federal challenge to California’s same-sex marriage ban; for US Vice President Al Gore in Bush v Gore; and for the plaintiff class in In re Vitamins. The firm has established and enjoys a world-class reputation for its highly successful Litigation Practice. In addition, the firm has a successful Corporate Practice based in New York City.
Main Areas of Practice:
Complex commercial trials and litigation, including antitrust, securities, financial products, intellectual property, insurance, and international arbitration are the leading and defining forces of Boies, Schiller & Flexner’s practice. The firm is widely recognized as having one of the most selective and entrepreneurial class action practices in the country, representing both plaintiffs and defendants in cases involving a broad range of subject matters. The firm also represents corporate clients and financial institutions in significant merger and acquisition, joint venture, commercial banking, securities, venture capital, and private investment fund transactions, including by defending transactions before state and federal agencies. The Corporate Practice has a proven record in representing clients in significant cross-border transactions.
International Work:
Boies, Schiller & Flexner partners have participated in arbitral proceedings representing clients before tribunals in Paris, Geneva, London, Zurich, Stockholm and Hong Kong and throughout the United States. The international practice is headed by Managing Partner Jonathan Schiller,who is a member of the Milan Chamber of National and International Arbitration Club of Arbitrators and serves as an advocate and arbitrator in international arbitration. In October 2009, Russia’s Federal Customs Service dropped a $22.5 billion RICO suit against BSF client The Bank of New York Mellon in Moscow, without any admission of liability by BONY Mellon, in a deal negotiated with the Russian government; the case was settled for $14 million - less than 1% of claimed damages. The firm’s international Arbitration Practice includes ICC, LCIA, UNCITRAL, ICSID, AAA, NASD and ad hoc arbitration.
Clients:
Boies, Schiller & Flexner headed up the trial team that secured a $1.3 billion jury verdict in the Northern District of California for client Oracle in copyright infringement litigation against SAP, their largest competitor in the enterprise software industry. This win marks the largest copyright infringement verdict in history by a factor of ten and the largest verdict of any kind in 2010. The US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, after a six month trial, ruled in favor of Boies, Schiller & Flexner client Barclays PLC on February 22, 2011 that Barclays’ purchase of Lehman’s broker dealer unit in September 2008 was done in good faith, and denied the bankrupt bank's request to recover an alleged $11 billion ‘windfall’. The firm also secured a multi-billion cash and securities settlement for Barclays in December 2008. In a landmark ruling upholding the constitutional right to marry, the Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals ruled on February 7, 2012, in favor of the plaintiffs in Perry v. Brown, the historic same-sex marriage civil rights case. The lawsuit arrived in the Ninth Circuit after the plaintiffs achieved a resounding victory in the district court in August 2010. The firm also achieved a $4.3 billion jury verdict in New York for Maurice ‘Hank’ Greenberg, former Chairman and CEO of American International Group Inc. and the C.V. Starr companies in action brought by AIG. The firm additionally settled all remaining claims brought by AIG against Greenberg and Starr International Company, including billions of dollars in damages and the return of multi-million dollar works of art. In September 2009, the firm won a summary judgment motion for core client Del Monte in the federal court in NewYork on the grounds that the defendants, a nationwide classes of direct and indirect purchasers, failed to define a proper product market and failed to show that Del Monte had behaved in an anticompetitive fashion. This decision was confirmed by the Second Circuit on November 3, 2010. In July 2005, Kentucky Speedway brought monopolization and conspiracy claims against Boies, Schiller & Flexner clients NASCAR and its affiliate International Speedway Corp., seeking more than $1.2 billion in damages. In a unanimous decision released December 11, 2009, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed summary judgment in favor of Boies, Schiller & Flexner clients NASCAR and International Speedway Corp. (ISC) in Kentucky Speedway's antitrust case. In addition, BSF is representing American Express in an antitrust suit brought by the US Department of Justice in October 2010, and is handling the representation of DuPont and Pioneer Hi-bred in litigation against Monsanto alleging monopolization by Monsanto of biotech traits in soybeans and corn seeds. The firm’s clients include some of the largest and most sophisticated companies in the world: Altria, American Express, Bank of New York Mellon, Barclays, CBS Corporation, C.V. Starr & Co., Delta Air Lines, Del Monte Fresh Produce Co., DuPont, Ernst & Young, Florida Power & Light, Goldman Sachs, Lloyds of London, Maurice ‘Hank’Greenberg, NASCAR, The National Football League, New York Life Insurance Company, Oracle, Pfizer, Philip Morris International, Sony Corporation, Starr International Company, The New York Yankees, Tudor Investment, Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network and Zurich Capital Markets.