Jonathan Boies
Jonathan Boies, a son of renowned trial lawyer David Boies and one of the first hires at the law firm that became Boies Schiller Flexner, died Feb. 22 of complications related to a vascular brain condition. He was 50.
David Boies confirmed his son's unexpected death in Aventura. Jonathan Boies was visiting for a family birthday celebration. The cause was a rare condition called arteriovenous malformation, an abnormal connection between arteries and veins in the brain.
Another of David Boies' adult children, Caryl Boies, died in 2010 at 48, following a years-long battle with lung cancer. She was a litigation partner at at the firm and founded its Fort Lauderdale. Caryl Boies was one of two children from David Boies' first marriage, which ended in divorce.
Jonathan, a graduate of the University of Redlands in California and Tulane University School of Law, and one of two children David Boies had with his second wife, Judith Boies, was the first associate David Boies hired after he split from Cravath, Swaine & Moore in the late 1990s.
In a 2017 interview, David Boies recounted how his son was set to join Kaye Scholer after graduating law school but ultimately ended up working alongside his father.
“Jonathan was scheduled to join Kaye Scholer, but when David called his good friend and Kaye Scholer, partner Jonathan Schiller, and said ‘I need my son,’ Schiller understood,” Boies told legal blog Above the Law. Schiller later left Kaye Scholer to become a name partner at Boies Schiller.
By the early 2000s, Jonathan Boies left his father's firm to pursue business ventures as an entrepreneur and stopped practicing law. But he remained part of the extended Boies Schiller family, said Nicholas Gravante Jr., a New York partner and member of the firm's executive committee.
Among the business ventures was a document processing and management company he founded called SiteLogic Technologies LLC, which he sold in 2015. In the years since, he was involved in the Diamond B Farms organic farm and a family-owned vineyard in Lake County, California, which uses organic methods to produce wine.
Gravante, who joined Boies Schiller in 2000, maintained a longstanding friendship with Jonathan Boies. After Jonathan left the firm, Gravante said the two of them typically teamed up at a tennis tournament held during the firm’s annual retreat.
Gravante described Boies as fun-loving and a big sports fan, especially of the New York Jets. He also said Boies was a devoted father to his 13-year-old son, Joshua, and the men's children were often a focus of conversation when Gravante and Boies spent time together.
“He truly loved his son,” Gravante said.
Gravante said the firm made a brief internal announcement about Boies' death.
“What was described within the firm was that our chairman and founder, David Boies, lost a son. It was tragic, David was devastated,” Gravante said. “Nobody loves the law more than David, and no one is more dedicated to his family than David.”
From its earliest days, Boies Schiller was somewhat of a family affair. Managing partner Jonathan Schiller's son Joshua is now a litigation partner at the firm.
Several members of the Boies family have come through the firm, including Jonathan Boies and his fraternal twin brother, Christopher Boies, who formerly headed Boies Schiller’s corporate practice. Alexander Boies, one of David Boies' children with his third wife, Mary Boies, is a Boies Schiller associate.
Jonathan Boies is survived by his father, his mother and her husband Robert Christman and his teenage son Joshua.
A private service for close friends and family and burial were scheduled for Sunday in Westchester County, New York, where Jonathan Boies lived.