Karen Donovan

5134. v. Goliath The Trials of David Boies, by Karen Donovan (read 14 Mar 2014) The author of this book, a lawyer turned journalist, spent a lot of time with David Boies in 2000 and 2001. The book is biographical but concentrates on Boies' time as a lawyer with the Cravath firm, and his creation of his own firm. She details the Microsoft case, where Boies was working for the Government in trying to show Microsoft was in violation of anti-trust law. He won that case in the first instance, but the judge did stupid things and the victory frizzled out. Boies started his own firm which quickly grew to 100 lawyers. The book tells of cases Boies handled and shows his methods--which were flashy and highly successful. His handling of his practice has to make one admire the fact he could be so successful when spreading himself so thin. One is astounded that he took family vacations as if he had all the time in the world and then had important events in the trials piled on top of each other, seldom seeking to have trials or hearings postponed. Working for him reminds me of a madhouse and I know I would never have been at ease in his employ. The doleful events of November and December 2000 are of couse explored at lenagth. I found I did not enjoy reliving those days as I read the book. It is indeed disturbing that under some scenarios Gore would have been elected--and the thought of how different the world would have been had that happened makes the reading of the book indeed upsetting. The complexity of the trials that Boies was involved in I did not think were handled too well by the author--but maybe no one could do better than she did. Donovan does not hesitate to show defects in Boies' behavior, and the fees he was able to obtain seem almost obscene to an old lawyer like me, well realizing that I lived in a world having no resemblance to his.… (altro)