Natasha Harrison, vice-chair of Boies Schiller, is leaving to set up a rival company.
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The anointed successor to former U.S. lawyer David Boies wants to leave his Boies Schiller Flexner company to compete in London.
Natasha Harrison, former Vice President of Powerhouse Company in New York, was seen as next in line taking over Boies as a chair.
He is best known for a series of recent follow-ups by Boies Schiller, whose reputation was tarnished in recent years by his association with Harvey Weinstein, the film’s most shameless filmmaker, and Theranos, a fraudulent founder of blood tests.
Harrison has been closely monitoring the London office on financial disputes and is currently leading a lawsuit against Credit Suisse, a representative of the Swiss bank Greensill-linked supply-chain finance funds. It also represents the bondholders who are suing Credit Suisse for $ 2bn Mozambican “We have bonds” scandal.
Harrison told the Financial Times he was leaving to form a “multiracial law firm”, having been elected vice-chairman of Boies Schiller last year and given the task of restoring the business.
Harrison was elected as a managing partner in 2019 along with Nicholas Gravante, who left Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in December after forcing businesses to merge. Harrison at the time was named vice-president – and successor – but resigned in September to return to his leadership role.
“I became a manager at a very difficult time and the whole company needed to be restructured,” he said. “I feel killed [that] strategy is. . . now is the time to return to the US to move on to the next phase. ”
The new system, which will launch early next year, will focus on high-profile business cases including large commercial and competitive markets. The company will use alternative payment systems and Harrison wants to create an environment where “the next generation can do better”, including pay based on working conditions and adjustable hours.
Boies Schiller will retain the London position after Harrison’s departure. But most of the boyfriends are expected to leave with him, according to someone close to the company, and his departure means the loss of key clients and lawsuits.
This follows a year of turmoil for the company, which recently closed three offices for better practice and has gone from risk of 350 lawyers to less than 200.
The company was built around the great personality of Star Boies, now 80, founded by Jonathan Schiller in the late 1990’s.
Boies is known to be one of the most talented lawyers of his generation. Among other earthquake cases, he represented the US Department of Justice in defeating Bill Gates and Microsoft; represented vice president Al Gore in a case that grew out of Florida repeating in 2000; and helped to lift the ban on gay marriage in California.
But the firm is now trying to get to the right foundation. Speaking to the Financial Times last year, Harrison said Boies Schiller “is not just around David now”.
Boies Schiller was also embroiled in a scandal involving Boies’ leadership in Theranos, the founder of Silicon Valley whose blood tests were fraudulent.
He was also Weinstein’s former lawyer, Hollywood producer and rapist. The New York Times Company, a long-time customer, fired Boies Schiller after it was revealed that the company had hired secret investigators to intimidate journalists and whistleblowers in Weinstein’s case.
Harrison admits that friends left because of the crisis – more than 70 of them left in the last 18 months by March last year – but says the biggest problem has been the lack of successive planning.
Harrison, who moved to Florida with his family for the first three months of closure last year, said the epidemic prompted him to reconsider his job. “I just thought that if I don’t do it now I won’t, and the idea of building a modern law firm that will be a future plan is very exciting,” he said.
Boies Schiller did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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