A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts.

In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states, Hong Kong and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers (or, in Scotland, advocates), and a lawyer will usually only hold one title. However, in Canada, New Zealand and most Australian states, the legal profession is now for practical purposes "fused", allowing lawyers to hold the title of "barrister and solicitor" and practise as both. The distinction between barristers and solicitors is, however, retained. Some legal graduates will start off as one and then decide to become the other.^[1]

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Before the unification of the Supreme Court under the Judicature Act 1873, solicitors practised in the Chancery Courts, attorneys practised in the Common law courts and proctors practised in the Ecclesiastical courts. After 1873 the titles of "attorney" and "proctor" disappeared as terms relating solely to legally qualified persons, being replaced by "Solicitor of the Supreme Court" in all courts.^[2] Since the replacement of the House of Lords with the Supreme Court the full title of a solicitor is now "Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales".^[3]

The term "attorney" is however still used under English law to refer to someone legally appointed or empowered (who may but need not be legally qualified) to act for another person. Currently, the term is most commonly used to refer to someone so appointed under the provisions of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 to act in this manner in a Lasting Power of Attorney.

In the English legal system, solicitors traditionally dealt with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts although solicitors were required to engage a barrister as advocate in a High Court or above after the profession split in two. Minor criminal cases are tried in Magistrates' Courts, which constitute by far the majority of courts. More serious cases start in the Magistrates Court and may then be transferred to a higher court. The majority of civil cases are tried in county courts and are almost always handled by solicitors. Cases of higher value (£50,000.00 or above) and those of unusual complexity are tried in the High Court, and the advocates in the High Court were until recently^[when?] barristers engaged by solicitors to assist. Barristers, as the other branch of the English legal profession, have traditionally carried out the functions of advocacy in the High Court and Crown Court and Court of Appeal. However, barristers have now lost this exclusivity and solicitors may now extend their advocacy to such courts. In the past, barristers did not deal with the public directly. This rigid separation no longer applies. Solicitor advocates with extended rights of audience may now act as advocates at all levels of the courts. Conversely, the public may now hire and interact with a barrister directly in certain types of work without having to go to a solicitor first.^[4]

Regulatory scheme[link]

Solicitors in England and Wales who wish to practise must pay an annual fee to obtain a Practising Certificate. This fee is paid to the Law Society of England and Wales, which represents the profession. The Solicitors Regulation Authority though funded by solicitors mandatory annual fees to the Law Society act independently of the Law Society, but together make up the complete system of professional regulation for solicitors. Complaints about solicitors if not satisfactorily resolved by the solicitors' firm may be made to the Legal Ombudsman.

Training and qualifications[link]

The training and qualification required to enter the profession by being admitted as a solicitor is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. There are two graduate routes of entry into the profession. Prospective solicitors holding a qualifying law degree^[5] proceed to enrol with the Law Society as a student member and study the Legal Practice Course. Those holding a non-law degree but one which is a "qualifying degree" must in addition completed a conversion course^[6] prior to enrolling on the Legal Practice Course. Once the Legal Practice Course has been completed, the prospective solicitor usually must then undertake two years' apprenticeship, known as a training contract, with a firm entitled to take trainee solicitors.^[7] The training contract was formerly known as an articled clerkship.

It is also possible to qualify as a solicitor without having attended university by being admitted as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives (FILEX), and thereafter completing the required number of years of practical experience, and studying for the Legal Practice Course.

Recent developments[link]

In England and Wales, the strict separation between the duties of solicitor and barrister has been partially broken down and solicitors frequently appear not only in the lower courts but (subject to passing a test and thereby obtaining Higher Rights of Audience) increasingly in the higher courts, too, (such as the High Court of Justice of England and Wales and the Court of Appeal). While the independent Bar still exists in a largely unchanged state, a few firms of solicitors now employ their own barristers and solicitor advocates to do some of their court work. Barristers, in turn, can now be directly instructed by certain organizations such as trade unions, accountants, and similar groups. Additionally, barristers who have completed the Bar Council's "Public Access" course can take instructions directly from members of the public, although there are some limitations on the type of work that can be done this way: for example, such barristers cannot take control of the conduct of litigation nor can they act in matrimonial matters.

This breakdown in the strict separation between barrister and solicitor is expected to go further in the next few years, with the advent of Legal Disciplinary Practices (on 31 March 2009) and Alternate Business Structures (expected 2011) appearing.

Regulation of both barristers and solicitors was reviewed by David Clementi on behalf of the Ministry of Justice in 2004. He delivered his final recommendations in December 2004^[8] which included proposals for a more unified regulatory system and new structures for cross-profession work. Many of his recommendations were enshrined in the Legal Services Act 2007.

Scotland[link]

Scotland's legal system is separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, the legal profession is divided between solicitors and advocates, the distinction being similar to that between solicitors and barristers in England and Wales, though Scottish solicitors have traditionally represented their clients in the lower courts (such as the Sheriff Court and the District Court), only being excluded from the High Court of Justiciary and the Court of Session. However, under Section 24 of the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Scotland Act 1990, suitably qualified solicitors were for the first time in Scotland granted rights of audience in the Supreme Courts in Scotland as well as in the House of Lords and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as solicitor advocates.

In Scotland, solicitors are regulated by the Law Society of Scotland, which requires prospective solicitors to pass exams in a curriculum set by the Society. Ordinarily, this is done by obtaining a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) in Scots law at a university approved by the Society, though it is also possible to sit the Society's own exams. Prospective solicitors are then required to take the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice (a one-year course provided by several Scottish universities) and then undertake a two-year traineeship with a law firm before they can qualify as a solicitor. As the Faculty of Advocates used to require a M.A. degree of its candidates, it used to be common to take a five-year combined MA LLB curriculum at the Scottish universities. Those intending to become solicitors who studied law as a first degree were at one time awarded a BL degree.

Prior to the formation of The Law Society of Scotland, solicitors were in most areas organized into a local Faculty of Procurators or Faculty of Procurators and Solicitors. These societies still exist, but their influence has waned. Whereas membership was once required in order to practise law in a particular locality, as long as a solicitor is registered with The Law Society of Scotland this is no longer the case. The local societies are now more likely to provide their members with a well-stocked law library, continuing professional development courses (all solicitors in Scotland are required to complete 20 hours of continuing professional development each year), and lobby on behalf of their members with The Law Society of Scotland and The Scottish Government regarding future legal developments.

In Glasgow, the Royal Faculty of Procurators still exists. In Edinburgh, both the Society of Writers to Her Majesty's Signet (also known as the W.S. Society), whose members refer to themselves as a Writer to the Signet (W.S.), and the Society of Solicitors to the Supreme Courts (S.S.C.) are still in existence. In Aberdeen, solicitors may belong to the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen. Its members are formally referred to as "Advocate in Aberdeen" to distinguish them from regular Scottish advocates.

In the 18th century, Dr. Samuel Johnson marked the change in designation of the lawyers in Glasgow with a jibe about their moving from "procuring" (a term which traditionally meant pimping) to "soliciting" (which was and is used as shorthand for prostitution). This was a play on the title "Procurator," meaning agent, a word still used in the Scottish courts, particularly when one Scottish solicitor tells a court that he is appearing only as the agent of another solicitor.

Solicitors in Scotland have full rights of audience in the Sheriff Courts throughout Scotland in both criminal and civil cases. They also have rights of audience in the District Courts (the lowest criminal court in Scotland), although these are now being replaced by Justice of the Peace Courts, in which a solicitor also has a full right of audience. When in court, a solicitor will normally wear a suit and tie together with a Scottish bar gown (a form of black robe).

Republic of Ireland[link]

Solicitors in the Republic of Ireland are represented and regulated by the Law Society of Ireland. It was formally established by Royal Charter in 1852. The legislative basis for its current role is set out in the Solicitors Acts 1954-2002.

In Ireland it is quite possible to become a solicitor without holding a law degree. Indeed a small number of practising solicitors hold no degree whatsoever. Instead individuals sit professional examinations which are set at degree level standard and undertake an intense apprenticeship program.

Irish independence in 1921 was marked more by continuity with the British legal system than with change. The legal profession has remained divided between barristers (or abhcóidí in Irish) and solicitors (or aturnaetha in Irish). However, there has been some blurring of their respective roles over the years. Notably, under Section 17 of the Courts Act 1971, solicitors were granted a right of audience in all courts, although in practice relatively few solicitors act as advocates for their clients in the Superior Courts.

Australia[link]

Regulation of the profession in Australia varies from state to state. Admission to practice is state-based, although mutual recognition enables a practitioner admitted in any state to practise nationally. In some states, the distinction between barristers and solicitors is nominal and reflects individual preferences and membership of professional associations. In others, at least in a practical sense, the distinction is clear from the type of practice practitioners have, even if they are entitled to practise in the other branch of the profession. Thus, while members of the bar practise only as barristers, a practitioner is admitted as a "barrister and solicitor." Thus, every solicitor is also a barrister, although many prefer to brief counsel rather than appear in courts or tribunals themselves. The trend to a fused profession is similar to that outlined above in England and Wales.

The states of New South Wales and Queensland, however, maintain strongly independent bars, call to which requires extra training. In those states, solicitors' rights of audience before superior courts are theoretically unlimited, but infrequently exercised in practice. Victoria also has an independent bar but solicitors have full right of audience before all courts.

Hong Kong[link]

Hong Kong has not fully embraced the "fused profession" trend; solicitors are governed by the Law Society of Hong Kong and barristers are governed by the Hong Kong Bar Association. A person intending to become a solicitor in Hong Kong must have a professional law degree, either LLB or JD or the equivalent, and complete the one-year PCLL program. They must also complete a two-year trainee solicitor contract with a law firm. Solicitors enjoy rights of audience in the lower courts, but the rights do not extend to the Hong Kong High Court and the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal; rights of audience in these two higher courts are restricted to barristers. But this tradition may change in the future. Work related to legislating for higher solicitors' rights of audience is being done - including the formation of a working party under the Chief Justice. The Chief Justice of Hong Kong has nodded to the proposal of creating a special scheme, under which a solicitor would be able to gain the status of "solicitor-advocate" along with higher rights of audience.

Canada[link]

In the English-speaking common law jurisdictions of Canada, the profession of barrister and solicitor have been fused; all those called to the bar are lawyers, and admitted as solicitors. While many barristers and solicitors choose to practise within the scope of one or the other traditional disciplines, many others choose a cross-discipline practice. In Quebec, however, like America and modern France, there is no tradition of split professions, though a distinction is sometimes made between an avocat plaidant "trial lawyer" and an avocat-conseil or conseiller juridique "legal consultant".

Japan[link]

In Japan, Shihou-syoshi, the second tier legal profession who are prohibited from giving legal advice but are only allowed to prepare documents on behalf of their clients, describe themselves as Japanese "solicitors". Their attempt to register the word "solicitor" as their trade mark in Japan, however, was thwarted by the Japanese Trade Mark Office rejecting the application on the basis that the word was generic.^{[citation needed]}

United States[link]

Historically, solicitors existed in America, though the term referred to a lawyer who argued cases in a court of equity, as opposed to an attorney who appeared only in courts of law.^[9][10] With the chancery or equity courts disappearing or being subsumed under courts of law, solicitors became obsolete by the late 19th century. In more modern American usage, the term solicitor is understood to refer to government lawyers. For example, the title "solicitor" is still used by town, city, and county lawyers in Delaware, Georgia, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and West Virginia. In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the professional organization for government lawyers is the City Solicitors and Town Counsel Association. On the federal level, departmental solicitors remain in the Department of Labor, Department of the Interior, and the Patent & Trademark Office, and the Solicitor General of the United States is the lawyer appointed to represent the federal government before the United States Supreme Court. In the U.S., "solicitor" is also used synonymously with salesman (with a pejorative connotation roughly equivalent to the British English word tout) as in the signed warning on public places of accommodation, "no soliciting".

In South Carolina, the position of "Circuit Solicitor" is analogous to that of State's Attorney or District Attorney in other jurisdictions.

See also[link]

• Barrister
• Conveyancer
• Legal executive
• Licensed conveyancer
• Solicitor General (disambiguation)

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Law Society of England and Wales Directory Of Solicitors
• The Irish Law Society Directory Of Solicitors

Rosemary Nelson (4 September 1958 – 15 March 1999) was a prominent Irish human rights lawyer who was killed by a loyalist paramilitary group in 1999. It has been suggested that British Security Forces were involved in her killing, however the findings of an inquiry which lasted 15 months stated that there was no evidence of collusion between loyalist paramilitaries and the security or secret services although the report added that it could not rule out the possibility that individual members of the security forces were involved in her killing.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]}

Career[link]

Nelson, née Magee, obtained her law degree at Queens University, Belfast (QUB). She worked with other solicitors for a number of years before opening her own practice. Nelson represented clients in a number of high profile cases (including Michael Caraher, the South Armagh Sniper, as well as a republican paramilitary accused of killing two Royal Ulster Constabulary officers). She also represented the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition in nearby Portadown in the long-running Drumcree conflict against the Orange Order and RUC.

Death[link]

Nelson claimed that she had received death threats from members of the RUC as a result of her defence work. Many of her clients claimed that RUC officers had threatened her through them several times. In 1998, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Param Cumaraswamy, noted these threats in his annual report, and stated in a television interview that he believed her life could be in danger. He made recommendations to the British government concerning threats from police against lawyers, which were not acted upon. Later that year, Nelson testified before a committee of the United States Congress investigating human rights in Northern Ireland, confirming that death threats had been made against her and her three children.^[12]

Nelson was assassinated, at the age of 40, by a car bomb outside her home in Lurgan, County Armagh, in 1999. A loyalist paramilitary group calling itself the Red Hand Defenders claimed responsibility for the killing.^[13] She was survived by her widower and their three children.

Posthumous[link]

In 2004, the Cory Collusion Inquiry recommended that the UK Government hold an inquiry into the circumstances of Nelson's death.

Nelson was posthumously awarded the Train Foundation's Civil Courage Prize, which recognizes "extraordinary heroes of conscience".^[14]

Inquiry[link]

The resulting inquiry into her assassination opened at the Craigavon Civic Centre, Craigavon, County Armagh, in April 2005.^[15] In September 2006 the British Security Service MI5 announced it would be represented at the inquiry. This move provoked criticism from Nelson's family, who reportedly expressed concerns that MI5 would remove sensitive or classified information.^[16]

Inquiry report[link]

The results of the inquiry were published on 23 May 2011.^[17] The inquiry found that there was no evidence of direct collusion between state agencies and Loyalists who murdered her, but that said agencies did not take threats against her seriously, effectively not investigating them properly.^[17] The report also said that members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary had legitimised her as a target by abusing and assaulting her in public in Portadown two years before her death.^[17] The report also said that it could not rule out the possibility that rogue members of the security forces had been involved in the bomb attack that killed her.^[17]

See also[link]

• Pat Finucane
• Robert Hamill
• Billy Wright

References[link]

External links[link]

• Inquiry website
• Socialist Democracy on the inquiry

This article may need to be rewritten entirely to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. You can help. The discussion page may contain suggestions. (April 2009)

David Boies
Boies at the 2011 Time 100 Gala
Born	(1941-03-11) March 11, 1941 (age 71) Marengo, Illinois, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Redlands Northwestern University Yale University New York University
Occupation	Attorney
Employer	Boies, Schiller & Flexner
Spouse	Mary Schuman

David Boies (born March 11, 1941) is an American lawyer and chairman of the law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner.^[1] He has been involved in various high-profile cases in the United States.

Early life and education[link]

Boies was born in Sycamore, Illinois, to two teachers. 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.^[2] In 1954, the family moved to California. Boies graduated from Fullerton Union High School in Fullerton, California. Boies attended the University of Redlands, received a B.S. from Northwestern University in 1964, a law degree magna cum laude from Yale Law School in 1966 and an LL.M. from New York University School of Law 1967; he was awarded an hononary 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.^[3]

Professional history[link]

Law firm[link]

Boies, Schiller & Flexner headquarters in Armonk, New York

Boies was an attorney at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he started upon law school graduation in 1966 and became a partner in 1973.^{[citation needed]} He left Cravath in 1997 after a major client objected to his representation of the New York Yankees even though the firm itself had found no conflict.^{[citation needed]} He left the firm within 48 hours of being informed of the client's objection and created his own firm, now known as Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP..^{[citation needed]} It is currently rated 17th in "overall prestige" and 12th among New York law firms by Vault.com, a website on legal career information.^{[citation needed]}

Government[link]

Boies was also Chief Counsel and Staff Director of the United States Senate Antitrust Subcommittee in 1978, and served as Chief Counsel and Staff Director of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee in 1979.^{[citation needed]}

Academia[link]

Boies has taught courses at New York University Law School and Cardozo School of Law.^{[citation needed]}

Notable cases[link]

David Boies speaking about the Microsoft antitrust case at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

• At Cravath, Boies assisted top litigator Thomas D. Barr in defending IBM in the 13-year antitrust cases brought by the Justice Department and many private competitors.
• Also at Cravath, he represented the Justice Department in the United States v. Microsoft case. Boies won a "victory" at trial,^[4] and the verdict was upheld on appeal. The appellate court overturned the relief ordered (breakup of the company) back to the trial court for further proceedings. Thereafter, the George W. Bush administration settled the case. Bill Gates said Boies was "out to destroy Microsoft."^[5] In 2001, the Washington Monthly called Boies "a brilliant trial lawyer", "a latter-day Clarence Darrow," and "a mad genius" for his work on the Microsoft case.^[4]
• Boies represented New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner in a suit against Major League Baseball. This involved an action against all the teams. The Atlanta Braves were owned by Time Warner, a longtime Cravath client, who objected to his representation of the Yankees.
• He defended CBS in the action brought by General William Westmoreland. The general abandoned his case during the trial.
• Following the 2000 U.S. presidential election, he represented Vice President Al Gore in Bush v. Gore.^[5]
• Boies defended Napster when the company was sued by the RIAA for facilitating copyright infringement.
• In November 2003, he represented Andrew Fastow, deposed Chief Financial Officer of Enron.
• Boies was retained by the SCO Group, during the SCO-Linux controversies, in their pursuit of alleged infringement of their rights to the Unix intellectual properties.
• In 2006, Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP.. negotiated a major settlement with The American International Group on behalf of its client, C. V. Starr, a firm controlled by Maurice R. Greenberg, the former chairman and chief executive of A.I.G.^[6]
• Boies negotiated on behalf of American Express two of the highest civil antitrust settlements ever for an individual company: $2.25 billion from Visa, and $1.8 billion from MasterCard.^[7]
• Boies is representing filmmaker Michael Moore regarding a Treasury Department investigation into Moore's trip to Cuba while filming for Sicko.^[8]
• On June 24, 2009, following the California Supreme Court ruling on Strauss v. Horton, Boies joined former Solicitor General Theodore Olson, the opposing attorney in Bush v. Gore, in the lawsuit Perry v. Schwarzenegger seeking to overturn the state of California's Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage.^[9] In August 2010, the trial judge ruled in their clients' favor.
• Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP. assisted the government in obtaining a $155 Million settlement from Medco Health Solutions related to a qui tam complaint which alleged that Medco, "systematically and intentionally switched patients' prescriptions in an effort to increase the market share for certain pharmaceutical manufacturers, and thereby increased hidden rebate payments it received from pharmaceutical manufacturers."^[10] In response to the settlement, Mr. Boies said, "I am very happy that lawyers from Boies, Schiller & Flexner were able to contribute to the litigation and settlement of this qui tam case, which will result in important changes in the way pharmacy managers do business by increasing their level of accountability to their patients. We are also very happy we could help the government recover the money it was erroneously billed by Medco, and that Medco agreed to execute a Corporate Integrity Agreement which will govern their conduct in the future."^[11]
• On August 20, 2009 the Golden Gate Yacht Club announced that he had been retained in their ongoing dispute with Société Nautique de Genève regarding the 33rd America's Cup.^[12]
• In March, 2010, David Boies joined the team of attorneys representing Jamie McCourt in her divorce from Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.^[13]
• Boies is part of the legal team representing the National Football League in their antitrust litigation, Brady v. NFL.^[14]
• Boies represented the National Basketball Players Association during the 2011 NBA lockout. He joined sides with Jeffrey Kessler, who opposed Boies as a representative for the players in the 2011 NFL lockout.^[15]
• Boies was the lead counsel for Oracle Corporation in its lawsuit against Google on the use of Java (programming language) technology in the Android (operating system)^[16]

Personal life[link]

Boies owns a home in Westchester County, New York, a vineyard in Northern California, an oceangoing yacht, and a large wine collection.^[17]

Boies was portrayed by actor Ed Begley, Jr. in the 2008 film Recount.

Philanthropy[link]

• Professorial chairs:
  • $1.5 million to the Tulane University Law School to establish the "David Boies Distinguished Chair in Law." Two of Boies' children earned their law degrees at Tulane.^[18]
  • A "David Boies Professor" was established at the University of Pennsylvania and is currently held by Professor of History and Sociology Thomas Sugrue. The professorship is named after David Boies' father, a high school teacher of government and economics.
  • A "David Boies Chair" at the Yale Law School was formerly held by Professor Robert Post before he became dean of the law school.
  • David and Mary Boies endowed a chair in government at the University of Redlands, the college that David Boies attended. Arthur Svenson currently holds this chair.
  • Mary and David Boies also endowed a "Maurice Greenberg Chair" at the Yale Law School.
• David Boies and his wife, Mary, donated $5 Million to Northern Westchester Hospital, in Mount Kisco, New York. Part of an ongoing capital campaign, the Boies' money is being used to build the hospital's new emergency room.^[19]

David and Mary Boies also fund the "Mary and David Boies Fellowships" for foreign students at the Harvard Kennedy School. The Boies give an annual picnic at their home for the incoming Teach for America corps for New York City (300-500 people). They support the Central European and Eurasian Law Institute (CEELI), a Prague-based institute that trains judges from newly democratized countries in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. There is a "Mary and David Boies Reading Room" at the CEELI Institute in Prague.

Characterization[link]

• "Never in a thousand years could I have predicted such a large recovery. Mr. Boies has to be the Tiger Woods of the legal profession."

--fellow lawyer Fred Furth on the Sotheby's and Christie's price fixing class-action lawsuit.^[20]

• "Few lawyers today can rival Boies' string of major triumphs... Boies' strengths include an encyclopedic mastery of the facts of a case and a chess player's sense of predicting a course of action." Cary Reich, New York Times Sunday Magazine, June 1, 1986
• "[Maxwell] Blecher ["one of California's savviest and most experienced litigators"] was flabbergasted that this young kid knocked him out of the box, really in the first round, " said litigator and partner Thomas D. Barr to the New York Times Sunday Magazine, June 1, 1986
• "The one talent of David's that stands out is his ability to lay out a course of action that would take into account any sort of complicated facts and develop a far-reaching scenario. It's a chess player's sense: If I do this, the following 15 things are going to happen, and if step 11 goes so, I'll do this rather than that. It's a fantastic game-playing ability." Thomas D. Barr, quoted in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, June 1, 1986
• "No lawyer in America has tried and argued on appeal as many landmark cases in as many different areas as Mr. Boies." Citation in Milton Gould Award for Outstanding Advocacy, October 1996
• "In court and out, he speaks a brand of English so simple and direct that he sounds like the high school teacher he once thought he would become." Time Magazine, "Get me Boies!" by Daniel Okrent, December 25, 2000
• "The Boies memory is one of the first things cited when people discuss his strengths. What's most impressive about that gift -- focused as it may be by the intensified concentration that his dyslexia demands -- is Boies' uncanny ability to recall a key fact, legal citation or piece of contradictory testimony at moments of the most intense pressure." Time Magazine, "Get me Boies!" by Daniel Okrent, December 25, 2000
• "David is the best lawyer I have ever seen, bar none... No question, David Boies is hard-wired different than everybody else. His brain works different. I was there at the counsel's table when he argued Bush v. Gore, I have seen other things he's done. He's just different. He's not human, in a very real way. He's capable of keeping track of five different things in a way that most very, very good lawyers could keep track of one of them... When it comes to a lawyer-lawyer, David Boies is far and away (the best)." Tom Goldstein, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld^[21]

Awards and honors[link]

• Time Magazine named Boies "Lawyer of the Year" in 2000.^[22] Boies was a runner-up to George W. Bush as "Person of the Year."
• Milton Gould Award for Outstanding Advocacy, October 1996
• Lifetime Achievement Award from LD Access Foundation, October 2001
• Outstanding Learning Disabled Achievers Award from the Lab School in Washington, DC
• William Brennan, Jr. Award from the University of Virginia School of Law, 2002
• Pinnacle Award, International Dyslexia Association, November 2005
• Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers
• Honorary Doctorate of Laws, New York Law School, 2007
• Fellow, Litigation Counsel of America

Criticism[link]

In his 2001 book, prosecutor and author Vincent Bugliosi criticized Boies' abilities as a trial lawyer, arguing that Boies "wasn't forceful or eloquent at all in making his points" in Bush v. Gore. "[A]lthough he seemed to have a very good grasp of the facts, he seemed completely incapable of drawing powerful, irresistible inferences from those facts that painted his opposition into a corner".^[23]

References[link]

Cites[link]

Breaking Legal News Featured Author

Articles[link]

• Cover Story, Forbes Magazine: "David Boies Takes on Eliot Spitzer in the Fight over AIG", by Daniel Fisher, Carrie Coolidge and Neil Weinberg, May 9, 2005
• Cover Story, New York Magazine: "The Trials of David Boies Why one Superlawyer has a Hand in Virtually All the High-profile cases of the Day. And How Bush v. Gore became the One that Got Away" by Chris Smith, February 26, 2001
• Cover Story, New York Times Sunday Magazine, "David Boies: The Wall Street Lawyer Everyone Wants" by Cary Reich, June 1, 1986
• Newsweek Magazine: "Microsoft's Tormentor How an affable trial lawyer with an understated canniness is driving Gates & Co. to the wall", March 1, 1999
• Vanity Fair "1999 Hall of Fame" December 1999
• The Financial Observer: "The Golden Boies", by Renee Kaplan, September 18, 2000
• Vanity Fair: "The Man who ate Microsoft" by David Margolick, March 2000
• The National Law Journal: "Lawyer of the Year", January 3, 2000
• Esquire Magazine: "What Does $750 an Hour Get You? A week in the datebook of David Boies" by Andrew Chaikivsky, May 2003
• Vanity Fair: excerpt from David Boies book Courting Justice, September 2004
• Anna Schneider-Mayerson. The Boies Family: Super-lawyer David Boies has been the go-to guy for legions of powerful people and institutions, including Al Gore, George Steinbrenner and CBS. Plus he's friends with both his ex-wives. New York Observer (Dec. 18, 2006)[2]
• David Olive. Betrayal catches Black by surprise. Toronto Star (Nov. 24, 2003)[3]

Books[link]

• Courting Justice: From New York Yankees vs. Major League Baseball to Bush vs. Gore, 1997-2000 (Miramax Books, 2004) ISBN 0-7868-6838-4
• v. Goliath: The Trials of David Boies, by Karen Donovan (Pantheon, 2005) ISBN 0-375-42113-0

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Biography from Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP.