Courting Justice: From NY Yankees v. Major League Baseball to Bush v. Gore, 1997-2000

by David Boies

A celebrated trial lawyer describes his life in the American legal system, detailing his youth in small-town Illinois, law school education, his courtroom battles in the media spotlight, his high-profile clients, and his thoughts on American law. 100,000 first printing.

Genres: Law, Nonfiction, Business, Biography, Memoir

496 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

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

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. 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.

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 after a major client objected to his representation of the New York Yankees even though the firm itself had found no conflict. 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.

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.

Boies has taught courses at New York University Law School and Cardozo School of Law.

Reviews

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read: more interesting than I anticipated, to be frank. Boies wins cases by telling compelling stories to the jury: here he tells the stories to us. He has some blow-by-blow accounts of interrogating certain witnesses, meeting with opposing council, etc, that are gripping. I have a greater grasp of the legal issues around Microsoft, Bush v. Gore, etc.

The book starts slowly with a chapter all about him, his family and his career: not a good way to start before we have any investment in him. It does illustrate one running theme of the book, however, which is that Boies has a very good opinion of himself. OK, he's a very able lawyer, but he could have told us so fewer times. Get past the first chapter to the case histories, and you'll stay with it.

[Noah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boies isn't the best prose stylist, but he does a good job of breaking down complex legal issues, and you can learn a lot about procedures and how lawyers approach a broad, high-stakes case (which are, I realize, things that no one other than myself wants to learn about).

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

For law geeks only...

[Davey · Rating 3 out of 5]

NF - His history, Bush/Gore, MLB/NYY

[battlestarpatel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read for any person interested in antitrust law.

[Todd · Rating 1 out of 5]

While Boies is certainly a brilliant lawyer and has certainly been involved in many interesting cases, he's not exactly an entertaining author. This book needed a serious editing job. Even though I'm a lawyer, I certainly didn't need every excruciating detail and excerpts of deposition and/or trial testimony. This read like a law school case book - not exactly a compliment. It would've been a lot more interesting if he stuck to the essential highlights and discussed the strategy and important details, instead of recapping each case play-by-play.

The best description of this book is that it's like getting stuck at happy hour talking to the one guy in your office who responds to a simple question like "How's work going?" with a detailed hour-long recap of every issue and argument of their latest case. I can't recommend this one.

[Channelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Boies is an incredible attorney whose resume is beyond impressive. He has worked on some of the most publicized and most important cases of our time including Microsoft, Bush v. Gore, MLB v. Yankees, etc. Although I am not sure if you would appreciate this book unless you were an attorney intrested in big business, I definitely enjoyed reading about the intricacies of some of the greatest cases of our time. It was fascinating to read about how the court system can be manipulated. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in the evolution of big business.

[Stella · Rating 2 out of 5]

David Boies seemed to be on every major cases that made national headline. I was obsessed (no, Colin, I did not have crush on him...) with his cases and naturally wanted to know more about his personal side. The book was disappointing though. His writing is painfully plain and boring. No ghost writer involved here I bet...

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiration for anyone thinking about Law. Guy writes with a simple style that is easy to read, and probably makes him a good lawyer. Courtroom tactics in huge anti-trust cases; immensely interesting.

[Matthew · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't believe a word this egotist says.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 stars for inspiring me to be a lawyer. -1 star for his arrogant writing

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first review said it best, this is a book for law geeks only. As a law geek, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, even if the writing was a bit rough. As a literary geek, you may be left wanting.

[jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, interesting, informative.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

former boss ... he rocks! (right Jess?)