New York

Boies Schiller & Flexner has crafted itself a pride of place in the legal market since its inception as a litigation-centric “boutique” with a maverick approach. Much of its initial celebrity was, and to an extent still is, largely credited to name partner and founder David Boies, a trailblazing trial lawyer who has been at the forefront of some of the most newsworthy and precedent-setting trials and appeals, as well as many others that haven’t made headlines but have covered a staggering array of disciplines. Boies’ legend still looms large. “At an age when most of his peers have long since retired, David is still active and still a brand name,” marvels one peer. “He seems to have no desire to hang it up – or doesn’t show it, anyway.” Boies and DC partner Hamish Hume served as co-lead counsel in a decade-long litigation for a class of Blue Cross Blue Shield subscribers, which alleged that the trademark licenses used by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association violated antitrust laws by allocating markets among the companies using those trademarks, and by restricting competition in other ways, including by capping the amount of revenue such companies can make from selling insurance under a trademark other than Blue Cross or Blue Shield.  In August 2022, the pair secured $2.67 billion in damages for the class. Individual objectors appealed the settlement and the Boies team successfully defended it on appeal, securing a unanimous decision from the Eleventh Circuit in October 2023.  The objectors then filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the US Supreme Court, and the Boies pair again successfully defended the settlement, securing a denial of cert in June 2024. Hume also led a DC-based trial team that, in October 2023, secured a jury verdict of $612.4 million on behalf of a class of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders who challenged a 2012 agreement, known as the “net worth sweep,” between the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) (as conservator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) and the US. Treasury. Florida-based Stuart Singer led a team that won an important case on behalf of renewable energy producer NextEra Energy that upholds the rights of companies to compete for power transmission projects, which was imperiled by a 2019 Texas law giving incumbent utilities and other existing transmission owners in Texas the exclusive right to build new transmission lines. NextEra had been awarded an important interstate transmission project which the new law would prevent NextEra from building. After the district court dismissed the action, Singer and his team appealed to the Fifth Circuit, scoring a favorable reversal. New York’s litigation group leader Matthew Schwartz is lauded by a peer as “a great lawyer strategic thinker, [who] was in the criminal and civil division of the US Attorney’s office.” Schwartz represents California investor Chris Parker and Red Mango Enterprises in litigation against the founder and former Chairman of Tellurian with claims for breach of contract, fraudulent inducement, promissory estoppel, and unjust enrichment. In 2017, the plaintiffs invested in Tellurian, a liquified natural gas company founded by the defendant. After the share price of Tellurian dropped sharply in the following years, the defendant promised in a series of text messages to indemnify plaintiffs for any losses if they retained their shares, which the plaintiffs did. The defendant then reneged on this agreement. Trial is scheduled to begin in December 2025.