Boies Schiller’s New Chair Says Chaotic Transition Helped Firm

Matthew Schwartz has assumed the top role at Boies Schiller Flexner, capping a years-long leadership transition mired by false starts, mass departures, and competing visions for the firm.

“We are ultimately aligned about the type of firm we want to be with the people who are here,” Schwartz, who officially became chairman on Wednesday, said in an interview. “Although the process took longer than some would have liked, it’s been incredibly healthy and helpful for the firm and we’ve emerged strong and very well-positioned for the future.”

The firm has nearly halved by headcount since 2018 with an exodus of lawyers once considered heir apparent to the outgoing chairman, 84-year-old legal titan David Boies. Schwartz says the firm’s partners are now unified on sticking to the strategy that built the elite litigation shop, focusing on plaintiff and defense work in high-stakes disputes.

“The identity and brand that we worked very hard over the last 27 years to carve out is as the premier trial firm,” Schwartz said. “So we have to work very hard, every day, to maintain the standards of excellence we’ve set for ourselves.”

Matthew Schwartz

Photo: Boies Schiller

Boies founded the firm in 1997 after departing Cravath, Swaine & Moore over a conflict with his representation of New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. He envisioned a nimble litigation-only firm that didn’t get tangled up in corporate conflicts.

The firm has paid a price for the chaos as other elite trial firms have sped past Boies Schiller on key metrics. Quinn Emanuel brought in more than eight times Boies Schiller’s nearly $250 million in revenue last year. Partners at Susman Godfrey earned more than 2.5 times the $2.5 million in profits per equity partner at Boies Schiller, according to data from The American Lawyer.

There are signs the firm’s time in the crucible has ended, however. It has notched major wins in contingency fee cases, including a massive antitrust suit against health insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield that came with a portion of $667 million in attorneys’ fees. It’s also hiring again, including luring back at least five partners who earlier left for competitors.

Young Blood

Schwartz, 47, is a former Manhattan federal prosecutor who worked on the Bernie Madoff case and joined Boies Schiller in 2015. His own practice is a mix of high-profile individual representations and plaintiff-side work.

He represented Devon Archer, a former associate of Boies Schiller alum Hunter Biden, in Congressional proceedings and an unsuccessful attempt to get Archer’s securities fraud conviction overturned.

Schwartz led a team winning two jury trials recovering combined more than $300 million for Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank, which accuses its former chair of embezzlement.

He was tapped by the firm’s partners a year ago after Boies indicated he wouldn’t seek reelection. He previously was co-managing partner, alongside Sigrid McCawley and Alan Vickery.

False Starts

The firm’s first formal effort at establishing a new leadership structure came in 2018, when it tapped four partners to run a new management committee. Three of those lawyers—Karen Dunn, Nick Gravante, and Damien Marshall—departed the firm in short order.

Another partner once seen as a likely successor to Boies, Natasha Harrison, left the firm in 2021, taking much of its London office with her to launch a litigation boutique.

Some of those leaders pursued different views for the firm’s future. Gravante pushed for a merger with Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, the firm he later joined. Another group, according to Schwartz, wanted the firm to focus on plaintiff-side work that’s considered more profitable and comes with fewer conflicts limits on who lawyers can represent. Some lawyers leaving the firm have formed plaintiff-focused spin-offs in recent years.

The partners who remain are in lockstep on strategy, according to Schwartz. That is to be “the best disputes-only law firm,” representing plaintiffs and defendants, corporations and individuals, with a mixture of one-time engagements and repeat clients.

“It is actually not that different than the founding vision,” Schwartz said.

Growth in Headcount, Fees

The firm’s headcount has hovered around 150 lawyers in recent years after ballooning to 320 in 2018, according to The American Lawyer. Schwartz expects it to stay in that range with “modest organic growth” through larger associate classes and targeted partner additions.

Boies Schiller hired 10 partners last year, with another three departing, data from Leopard Solutions show. Partners who have returned to the firm include Peter Skinner, Evan Ezray, Joshua Stein, Michael Jacobs and Dan Boyle.

The firm also has won a series of contingency fee matters in recent months.

In June, its portion of the $667 million Blue Cross Blue Shield fee was finalized. The US Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a $2.7 billion settlement Boies Schiller forged with the company in a decade-old antitrust case.

The firm in late 2023 won a share of a $23 million fee in a $290 million settlement between JP Morgan Chase & Co. and victims of Jeffrey Epstein.

Boies Schiller and other firms are waiting on a judge’s ruling on a request for $217 million in fees for a class action settlement with Alphabet’s Google LLC over privacy issues related to its web browser’s “incognito” mode.

David Boies played a prominent role in each of those cases, alongside larger teams from the firm.

“The people who work on those cases, both partners and associates, when they achieve premium recoveries, the lawyers involved share in those premiums,” Schwartz said.

Boies Schiller this year gave 95% of its associates bonuses that surpassed the Big Law scale, with multiple junior lawyers landing more than $1 million in extra pay.