Overview
Introduction
At Boies Schiller Flexner, associates toss aside the life vest and dive right in, and lawyers at this litigation powerhouse wouldn’t have it any other way. Litigators looking to roll up their sleeves and learn on the job will feel right at home here.
Firm Stats
Total No. Attorneys (2024)
No. of Partners Named (2023)
Featured Rankings
No. of 1st Year Associates Hired (2023)
No. of Summer Associates (2024)
Base Salary
Vault Verdict
Boies Schiller Flexner offers associates great relationships with partners, top compensation, and heavyweight litigation opportunities. Hiring considerations include elite law school attendance, academic achievement, journal experience, and clerkships. Once hired, associates can expect friendly, respectful office settings where people care about each other and about getting to know one another. Partners and associates work closely together through a flat hierarchy and on lean teams, and although formal training is limited, partners and senior associates do an outstanding job helping younger attorneys learn on the job. Lateral hires are onboarded and treated like other associates; they are given cases immediately. Assignments are challenging, interesting, and substantive—and genera...
Firm's Response
Boies Schiller Flexner is a firm of internationally recognized trial lawyers, crisis managers, and strategic advisers known for our creative, aggressive, and efficient pursuit of successful outcomes for clients. Our attorneys have an established track record of taking on and winning complex, groundbreaking, and cross-border matters in dive...
About the Firm
Started in 1997, Boies Schiller Flexner LLP is a relative newcomer to the elite firm ranks, and its principal offices are in New York; Washington, DC; California; Florida; the United Kingdom; and Milan. As one of the nation’s premier litigation shops, BSF is no stranger to heavy-hitter clients, which have included American Express, Antara Capital, the Baltimore Orioles, Barclays, Carnival Corporation, the Cherokee Nation, Davidson Kempner, Delta Air Lines, the New York Yankees, NextEra Energy, Philip Morris, Redbird Capital Partners, Red Granite Pictures, and Sony.
Game Changer
A star litigator at Cravath for 30 years, David Boies knocked heads with the firm when he decided to represent Yankees owner George Steinbrenner in a lawsuit against Major League Baseball. Boies’ represent...
2025 Vault Rankings
Associate Reviews
- “The firm has a collegial [but] not overly social environment. Lawyers socialize together during ‘work hours’ but not necessarily outside of work. We all respect each other and have a high regard for each other's expertise.”
- “There is almost no hierarchy, and lawyers and staff interact regularly in a friendly, respectful manner. Lawyers and staff have a weekly lunch together.”
- “The firm's culture, more than anything, is a place where attorneys are respected as professionals. No one is looking over your shoulder as to where or how much work you are doing. It is up to you to make your own adventure, and our compensation system reflects that. People are very respectful and supportive of each other. For example, when my dog died last week, all of my teams without hesitation gave me the freedom to take a few days off to be with my family.”
- “Environment is very friendly and collegial. Attorneys interact frequently and organically, even across Zoom, phone, and text. Relationships with staff are friendly and professional. People seem happy with the flexible in-office vs. remote work policy (no official in-office requirement).”
Diversity at Boies Schiller Flexner LLP
Getting Hired Here
- “There were several rounds of interviews and a timed writing exam. The firm wants to hire clerks and offers very generous clerkship bonuses. The firm almost exclusively hires from T14 schools, but it seems to make exceptions to this rule for people who worked as paralegals at the firm prior. There is a GPA cutoff.”
- “It felt competitive to me when I went through the process! I haven't been too involved in recruiting as an associate. But I know the firm prizes T14 law schools, clerkships, grades, and journal experience. For feeder schools, UVA, Penn, and Columbia come to mind. But it's possible to get hired out of law school even if you didn't go to a T14, didn't clerk, and didn't work on a journal (each of those criteria describes me). For laterals, my sense is the more junior you are, the less likely you are to get hired unless you clerked.”
- “BSF prefers to hire from a few schools: Stanford, Columbia, Yale. The SF office considers regional schools with good standing (i.e., Hastings, Berkeley). Grades are the most important factor with a second being clerkship.”
- “BSF looks for people who understand the strengths of the firm and are willing to and have the personality to take advantage of those strengths. For example, BSF is almost entirely litigation-driven and generally staffs matters leanly. People who want to be litigators and get experience and responsibility early will do well here.”
Perks & Benefits