Biography
David Boies was born March 11, 1941 in Sycamore, Illinois. He is severely dyslexic — he did not learn to read until third grade and still reads exceptionally slowly — a condition he has said forced him to develop an extraordinary memory, because he could not rely on notes. He worked his way through Santa Barbara City College, then transferred to Northwestern University, then earned his law degree from Yale Law School in 1966. He joined Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he became one of the most feared trial lawyers in the country, winning major antitrust cases for CBS and IBM.
In 1998 the Department of Justice hired him to lead its antitrust case against Microsoft — a case of extraordinary complexity involving thousands of documents and dozens of witnesses. His cross-examination of Bill Gates, conducted over three days from videotaped deposition footage, became legendary: Boies played clip after clip in which Gates gave contradictory answers or appeared evasive, methodically undermining the credibility of a witness who had seemed unassailable. The judge's ruling against Microsoft cited Gates's deposition testimony as evidence of the company's anticompetitive intent. In 2000 he argued Al Gore's case in Bush v. Gore before the Supreme Court. In 2010 he co-argued with Ted Olson to overturn California's Proposition 8. He founded Boies Schiller Flexner in 1997, which became one of the most successful litigation boutiques in the country.
Core Philosophy
Every case is won or lost before you walk into the courtroom. Boies is obsessive about pre-trial preparation: document review, deposition preparation, witness sequencing, exhibit selection. He believes that a well-prepared lawyer has already won by the time the jury is seated, because he has anticipated every move and has the documentary evidence to counter it. His cross-examinations work because they are not improvised — every question has a known answer, confirmed by documents already in evidence.
Listen more than you speak. Boies has said that his dyslexia — which makes reading slow and laborious — trained him to listen with extraordinary attention. While other lawyers read their notes or think about their next question, Boies listens to what the witness actually says, then pounces on the inconsistency. "The most dangerous thing a witness can do is give a slightly different answer than the one I have on paper. That's the moment I've been waiting for."
Famous Quotes
"Every case is won or lost before you walk into the courtroom. The trial is just the performance."— David Boies
"The most powerful thing in a cross-examination is silence after an inconsistent answer. Let the jury hear it."— David Boies
"I would rather have the facts than the law. You can always argue the law — you cannot argue away the facts."— David Boies
Notable Achievements
- Led the DOJ's antitrust case against Microsoft (1998–2000) — resulting in a landmark ruling against the company
- His cross-examination of Bill Gates is taught in law schools as a model of documentary cross-examination
- Argued Al Gore's case in Bush v. Gore before the US Supreme Court (2000)
- Co-argued Perry v. Schwarzenegger with Ted Olson — overturning California's Prop 8 ban on same-sex marriage
- Founded Boies Schiller Flexner in 1997 — became one of the most successful litigation boutiques in the US
- Won major antitrust cases for CBS and IBM at Cravath, Swaine & Moore
- National Law Journal Trial Lawyer of the Year multiple times
- American Lawyer magazine's Litigator of the Year and Decade
Lessons for the CLO Suite
Boies wins with documents — emails, memos, presentations — because documents don't forget, don't get nervous, and can't be impeached. Build document discipline into your organization before litigation finds you.
Most executives listen to respond. Great legal minds listen to understand what the other side actually said vs. what they intended to say. The gap between those two is where cases are won.
Boies's courtroom dominance looks effortless because it is the product of exhaustive preparation. The CLO who appears calm under cross-examination has done the most work beforehand.
Boies's dyslexia forced him to develop extraordinary memory and listening skills. What appears to be a weakness can, with the right adaptation, become a decisive competitive advantage.