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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: average joe who wrote (81612)	11/19/2000 12:43:40 AM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

For Gore's top lawyer, a devotion to victory A formidable legal talent, David Boies is described as obsessed with winning. By L. Stuart Ditzen INQUIRER STAFF WRITER There stands David Boies before the assembled microphones of the national media, chatting easily on fine points of Florida election law. That talent for instantly grasping the key elements of complex legal issues partly explains why this tousled 59-year-old New Yorker is widely viewed as one of the most skilled trial lawyers in America. Boies emerged this week as chief legal strategist for Al Gore's campaign in the great Florida vote-count battle. During news conferences, in the glare of the lights and at the vortex of one of the most unusual election controversies in American history, Boies has seemed utterly relaxed and in command. By the descriptions of those who know him, that is perfectly in character. Boies is famous in legal circles for his ability to talk interestingly and conversationally on complex and technical topics. "It's not that hard to learn an area of the law," Boies once told an interviewer. "I know how to communicate, read cases, organize facts. That is what a lawsuit is all about." When in court, Boies rarely refers to notes. Everything he says, as the nation has witnessed this week in his television appearances, comes right out of his head. He has the ability to commit most of what he reads and hears to memory and then to summon it up as needed when he speaks. During a 33-year legal career, Boies has won many high-profile cases. His specialty is complex commercial litigation. He is, according to friends, obsessed with winning. "It's a matter of priorities," he told a Washington Post reporter in 1998. "Do you want to win, or would you like to sleep?" The choice for Boies, when he immerses himself in a case, often is to skip sleep. In 1985, he successfully defended CBS Inc. against a $120 million libel suit by Gen. William Westmoreland, the former Vietnam commander. He helped the Resolution Trust Corp. win a $1 billion settlement against junk-bond dealer Michael Milken and his firm, Drexel Burnham Lambert. Earlier this year, Boies successfully represented the Justice Department in its antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. Boies often is described by colleagues as an "eccentric genius." He bills for his time at $600 an hour, lives in a brick mansion in a New York City suburb, makes more than $1 million a year, and likes to ride in stretch limousines. But he wears sneakers to court beneath the cuffs of off-the-rack suits he buys at Sears and Macy's. He reportedly likes department-store suits because they're a good bang for the buck. Instead of a $500 leather briefcase that is standard equipment for most successful lawyers, Boies lugs his papers in a mail-order bag from Lands' End. He wears his wristwatch - and it's a low-cost timepiece - on the outside of his coat sleeve, so he can check the time inconspicuously when speaking to judges or juries. He loves to gamble, and goes to Las Vegas or Atlantic City several times a year for long sessions at the craps tables. Boies grew up in Orange County, Calif., and debated when he was young whether to take up the career of his father, a history teacher, or to study law. The law won. He graduated from the University of Redlands in California and from Yale University Law School. He has been married three times and has six children - two by each wife. Boies has said that the two most important things in life for him - the only two things - are his family and his work. But colleagues say there is a third thing, perhaps even more important: winning.