BSF Celebrates 25 Years

It was the law firm launch that shook up the legal industry.

Twenty-five years later, the narrative has become such a well-known origin story that it can be easy to forget just how revolutionary David Boies’ departure from Cravath, Swaine & Moore truly was. Or how unlikely that Jonathan Schiller would leave Kaye Scholer and open a Washington, D.C. office for the upstart firm. Known for high-stakes cases throughout their careers, what is not surprising is how quickly the pair – along with Don Flexner, who joined in 1999 – built a firm with a roster of high-profile clients and significant victories. For 25 years, the firm has followed the same pattern: We take big bets on consumer class actions and other plaintiff-side cases, maintain an enviable roster of core clients, handle bet-the-company litigation and other critical matters, and bring about important changes through high-impact pro bono work.

Click on the dropdowns below to explore our history or view the full pdf here.

         

  • David Boies sets up shop in Armonk, NY

  • Jonathan Schiller opens a Washington, DC office

  • Represented the New York Yankees (David) and Adidas (Jonathan) in antitrust litigation against MLB over the Yankees’ sponsorship agreement with Adidas

  • Filed a class action lawsuit that ultimately resulted in more than $1 billion settlement over an international conspiracy to fix the vitamin prices (thought to be the largest civil antitrust class action settlement at the time)

  • Won a defense ruling for Westinghouse against patent infringement claims over Black & Decker’s “snake light”

  • David famously deposed Bill Gates as the lead attorney in the government’s antitrust trial against Microsoft

  • Comedian Garry Shandling hires the firm to sue his former manager for $100 million

  • Secured win for Unisys Corporation and a subsidiary in parallel UNICITRAL arbitration in Vienna and U.S. federal court

  • Caryl Boies opened a South Florida office for BSF in Hollywood

  • Don Flexner joins the firm as the third name partner in what is today known as Boies Schiller Flexner LLP

  • Represented Al Gore in landmark Bush v. Gore case, working with the attorneys who opened our Miami office

  • Napster hires BSF to represent it in copyright litigation against the recording industry

  • Secured a court order preventing the enforcement of a $1.4 billion Pakistan court judgment against Westinghouse, Siemens, and Raytheon

  • Secured a $512 million settlement in a case against Christie’s and Sotheby’s that was described as “the most outstanding result … in the history of the antitrust laws”

  • Client Calvin Klein settles high-profile litigation with Warnaco Group

  • Successfully defended Qwest Communications in a securities class action, SEC investigation, and parallel proceedings in Europe arising out of the KPNQwest bankruptcy

  • Took on Tyco International representation, which was one of the largest securities cases following the Enron scandal and included an investigation and high-profile trial

  • Following a three-week trial, secured $261 million in damages for Florida Power & Light over contract claims against two Indonesian state companies

  • Brought class action claims of market manipulation against Genzyme over the elimination of one of its publicly traded “tracking stocks”

  • Lead trial counsel for YES Network in a fast-track arbitration that resulted in a long-term carriage agreement with Cablevision that increased the value of YES by $1.5 billion

  • Obtained a jury verdict, upheld by the Second Circuit, for Lloyds of London in a $700 million insurance dispute over the destruction of the World Trade Center

  • Former AIG Chairman and CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg hires David Boies to defend him in connection with investigations initiated by NYAG Eliot Spitzer, ultimately resulting in a midtrial settlement

  • Successfully defended Goldman Sachs in a consolidated class action seeking to enjoin the New York Stock Exchange merger with Archipelago Holdings

  • The New York Yankees turned to BSF to beat litigation seeking to halt the construction of the new Yankee Stadium

  • Secured trial court win against Finish Line and UBS to enforce $1.5 billion acquisition of client Genesco

  • Achieved a $4.1 billion recovery for American Express against VISA and Mastercard – the largest ever for a private plaintiff in an antitrust case

  • Won summary judgment for NASCAR in a case alleging monopolization of stock car racing and seeking $1.2 billion in damages

  • Secured more than $220 million for a class of purchasers in the In re Municipal Derivatives Antitrust Litigation

  • Partner Steve Zack becomes first Hispanic American elected to serve as ABA President

  • Settled a $22.5 billion RICO claim for BNY Mellon after two years of litigation, including trial in Moscow, for just $14 million

  • Successfully defended Hank Greenberg and Starr International Company at trial, arising out of claims brought by AIG seeking $4 billion of Starr’s assets

  • A jury awarded a record $1.3 billion to our client in Oracle v. SAP, the largest amount ever in a copyright infringement case

  • Defeated antitrust class action for Fresh Del Monte, saving the client in excess of $900 million in damages

  • Won complete dismissal of a $43 million lawsuit against New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner regarding claims involving the YES Network

  • Obtained approval of a $155 million settlement against Quixtar (Amway) that provided transformative injunctive relief in multi-level marketing field

  • Advised the NBA players in disbanding their union and bringing a class action against the NBA, resulting in a settlement that saved the 2011-12 season

  • Convinced a federal bankruptcy judge during a bench trial to reject claims from the Lehman Brothers’ estate seeking $13 billion in litigation stemming from Barclays' buyout of Lehman

  • Counsel in divorce trial proceedings between client Jamie McCourt and Frank McCourt, who owned the LA Dodgers, culminating in a settlement

  • Reached a proposed settlement for a class of investors in the largest Madoff “feeder fund,” recovering hundreds of millions of dollars

  • Won a U.S. Supreme Court ruling against California’s same-sex marriage ban

  • In a landmark IP case, the Second Circuit ruled that artist Richard Prince’s work was protected as fair use

  • BSF announces first international office, setting up shop in London

  • Won a court order preventing StubHub from opening a storefront near Yankee Stadium, ultimately resulting in a confidential settlement

  • On its second trip to the Supreme Court, Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc. is decided unanimously in our client’s favor, preserving the fraud-on-the-market theory

  • Won a FINRA arbitration for Goldman Sachs rejecting $300 million fraud claims brought by co-founders of Marvell Technology Group

  • Announced relocation of New York office to Hudson Yards

  • Successfully challenged a discriminatory policy of the Boy Scouts of America, leading the organization to voluntarily lift its ban against openly gay leaders

  • Obtained an emergency stay of an order that would have shut down DraftKings and Fanduel, paving the way for a resolution with the NYAG

  • Represented Ripple Labs in the first-ever DOJ-FinCEN enforcement action against a digital currency company for antimoney laundering violations

  • In our litigation for Starr over the AIG bailout, secured a judicial ruling that the Federal Reserve set illegal conditions for the $85 billion rescue loan to AIG

  • After a 93-day trial, won a sweeping favorable decision that improved medical and dental care for over 2 million Florida children on Medicaid

  • Represented a nationwide consumer class against Volkswagen over its emissions scandal, resulting in a $15 billion settlement

  • Won summary judgment for Delta Air Lines after 28 million passengers alleged Delta and AirTran colluded to institute baggage fees

  • Brought litigation that helped shut down Backpage.com for participating in the trafficking of children and young adults for sex

  • Secured a $1 billion settlement for plaintiffs in the Takata air bag litigation

  • Secured a midtrial settlement for Uber in a trade secrets case dubbed the IP trial of the century in which Waymo sought $1.6 billion in damages

  • Won two important appeals for Florida Power & Light (now NextEra), one in a base rate case and the other in a class action with $1 billion at stake

  • Announced a historic $65.5 million settlement on behalf of a class of au pairs whose sponsor companies deprived them of wages

  • Obtained a ruling from the Fifth Circuit affirming a broad doctrine of attorney immunity from suits by non-clients where $5 billion was at stake

  • Secured defense jury verdict for Barclays Bank Delaware subsidiary Analog Analytics Inc. in a trial with claims seeking $100 million in damages for alleged breach of contract

  • Secured preliminary approval of a $2.7 billion antitrust settlement for insurance subscribers against Blue Cross Blue Shield that the judge described as “historic and substantial”

  • Sigrid McCawley is profiled among The American Lawyer’s Litigators of the Year for the firm’s work on behalf of victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, which helped lead to Epstein’s arrest

  • Sigrid McCawley, Matthew Schwartz, and Alan Vickery assume roles as new managing partners

  • BSF Italy opened in Milan, giving us a second European office

  • Named co-lead counsel for a class of online publishers in ongoing antitrust litigation against Google over anticompetitive conduct related to Google’s Ad Server

  • Resolved class action claims for EpiPen purchasers over price gouging by Mylan and Pfizer, recovering $609 million for consumers

  • Won a unanimous Supreme Court ruling in Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection on behalf of a family whose Pissarro painting was stolen by Nazis

  • Secured historic sanctions against Google in the Incognito privacy litigation

  • Sued Prince Andrew resulting in a settlement for client Virginia Giuffre related to Jeffrey Epstein

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