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Speaker 1: David Boys is one of the huge stars of the

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Speaker 1: legal profession. The seventy nine year old trial lawyer has

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Speaker 1: no plans to retire, but he is relinquishing management responsibility

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Speaker 1: at his three ten lawyer firm, Boys, Chiller and Flexner.

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Speaker 1: Joining me is Casey Sullivan, Editor at large for Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Big Law Business. He spoke to Boys about his plans

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Speaker 1: in an article entitled David Boys is trying to make

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Speaker 1: his law firm outlive him. Casey, you write that he

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Speaker 1: is one of the most connected litigators in the country.

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Speaker 1: That must be true, But tell us about Boys, sure? So,

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Speaker 1: I mean, I think as illustrates his connectivity in in

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Speaker 1: the legal market. Um. You know, he's represented clients from

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Speaker 1: Harvey Weinstein to the Weinstein Company to the New York Times,

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Speaker 1: which presented a conflict. When these sexual harassment and sexual

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Speaker 1: assault allegations emerged in the New York Times, he found himself, um,

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Speaker 1: in a situation where he would need you know both

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Speaker 1: you know, his productive production company is consent to be

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Speaker 1: able to advise both the production company and Weinstein. So um,

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Speaker 1: very well connected lawyer. Um. You know, if you go

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Speaker 1: back to you know, the Bush v. Gore, he advised

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Speaker 1: al Gore and the recount of the two thousand election, UM,

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Speaker 1: among a number of other highly notable cases. He certainly

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Speaker 1: is known to everybody who is in the legal profession

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Speaker 1: or part of it. Now he is planning to make

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Speaker 1: sure his his law firm out lives him. How is

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Speaker 1: he going to plan how is he planning to do that?

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Speaker 1: So this was a process that stunned back as far

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Speaker 1: as two thousand two, and it's really kind of been

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Speaker 1: a gradual process over time the way that he described

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Speaker 1: it to me. UM the firm formed an executive committee

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Speaker 1: initially to spread out management responsibilities throughout the firm, and

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Speaker 1: recently UM, you know, as one of the name partners

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Speaker 1: of the firm is planning to retire UM by the

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Speaker 1: end of the year. They're planning to appoint several new

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Speaker 1: members of the executive committee. And at the same time,

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Speaker 1: Boys as well as UM, the managing partners of the

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Speaker 1: firm that there are three managing partners total, are relinquishing

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Speaker 1: management responsibilities that includes hiring and promotions and you know,

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Speaker 1: overall oversight of the firm's caseload. UM throughout the entire

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Speaker 1: executive committee. Let's talk about the firm and the way

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Speaker 1: he grew the firm, because he grew it very slowly grows.

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Speaker 1: It's on a path of slow growth. And he said

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Speaker 1: he aims for less than three percent head count growth

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Speaker 1: per year. Why is that, Well, what he told me

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Speaker 1: is that, you know, he really wants to focus on quality. UM.

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Speaker 1: You know, the firm has a roughly uh slightly more

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Speaker 1: than one to one associate to partner ratio. Traditionally at

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Speaker 1: these large law firms, UM, they leverage cases uh a

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Speaker 1: lot UM and so you know there's typically more than

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Speaker 1: you know, two associates per partner at least on these

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Speaker 1: large matter is UM. And so you know, it's important

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Speaker 1: for him to to as as the firm grows, to

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Speaker 1: make sure that every single lawyer UM is able to

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Speaker 1: handle the large responsibilities that come comes with these um

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Speaker 1: really important matters. So he told me that when he

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Speaker 1: recruits out of law schools and and you know, the

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Speaker 1: firm recruits from the nation's top law schools, that you know,

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Speaker 1: he looks for candidates who are willing to take on

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Speaker 1: outsized responsibilities that you know, typically first year associates wouldn't

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Speaker 1: handle like kind of like the uh, you know, document

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Speaker 1: review and more mundane aspects of legal work. That ratio

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Speaker 1: really hit me when I saw that, because that's really

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Speaker 1: unusual in in big law firms in New York. He

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Speaker 1: what about his work right now? According to your article,

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Speaker 1: he is still working as hard as ever. Yeah, he

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Speaker 1: said that he has no plans to retire and that

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Speaker 1: he remains, you know, working uh, you know, the same

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Speaker 1: hours that he used to. He said that, uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: in relation to the amount of revenue production that he

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Speaker 1: was able to accomplish, you know, it's about a third

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Speaker 1: of what it was a decade ago. And I think

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Speaker 1: that he said that because, um, you know, to illustrate

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Speaker 1: that the firm is institutionalizing itself and growing beyond just

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Speaker 1: David Boys as you know, the prominent name partner that

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Speaker 1: people know for you know, the top lawyer that people

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Speaker 1: come to for the scandal of the day. Um. And

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Speaker 1: so you know, there are other partners who are stepping up.

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Speaker 1: Bill Isaacson as a partner who is handling um the

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Speaker 1: litigation on behalf of Apple and their nhrust claims UH

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Speaker 1: with Qualcom uh. Karen Dunn is another prominent partner who

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Speaker 1: is taking the lead on the Uber driverless car program case.

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Speaker 1: That they um are are in litigation with with WIMO,

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Speaker 1: So you know, responsibilities are being spread beyond just Boys.

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Speaker 1: It's hard to step out of his shadow. That's that's

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Speaker 1: a big, big shadow. UM. In just about thirty seconds,

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Speaker 1: just the downside of working there, you talked about a

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Speaker 1: litigation partner who wanted to take on more plaintiff's cases

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Speaker 1: and so left. Yeah, so that has actually been an

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Speaker 1: issue for the firm. UM. Client conflicts has been an issue.

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Speaker 1: And I think that because David Boys is so connected

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Speaker 1: with large corporations and a number of clients. UM. You know,

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Speaker 1: some lawyers at the firm have felt that their own

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Speaker 1: practices have been limited UM. And I think that that

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Speaker 1: came through with an interview that I had with Philippe Salendi,

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Speaker 1: partner who left the firm in two thousand six that

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Speaker 1: went on who went on to quin Emmanuel UM. He

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Speaker 1: brought a number of lawsuits against the financial services sector

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Speaker 1: after the financial crisis, and Uh, it was a case

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Speaker 1: that you wouldn't have been able to have to leave

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Speaker 1: it there. It's a great article. That's Casey Sullivant, editor

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Speaker 1: at large for Bloomberg Big Law Business coming up on

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Law does it Supreme Court have an averse into math,