- Boies Schiller Flexner partner Joshua Schiller was arrested on a domestic violence charge this week in California.
- He’s on a leave of absence from the firm and, through a lawyer, called the incident “a misunderstanding.”
- Schiller, whose father co-founded the elite litigation firm, had been described as one of the firm’s next generation of “outstanding lawyers and business generators.”
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Joshua Schiller, a partner at law firm Boies Schiller Flexner, was arrested this week on a domestic violence charge and is now on leave from the firm.
Police officers in California responded to a disturbance at a residence in the town of Ross, part of Marin County, and determined Schiller had committed an act of violence against his wife, according to a police report.
The report, which noted that the arrest took place on Jan. 13, at 10:58 p.m., said that when police arrived, the victim had “visible injuries that were minor in nature and did not require immediate medical treatment.” The charge is a misdemeanor.
The American Lawyer first reported the arrest.
Schiller, who has advised clients such as DraftKings and Salesforce, is the son of Jonathan Schiller, a prominent litigator in New York City and cofounder of the elite law firm Boies Schiller Flexner with the trial attorney David Boies.
Through his attorney, Schiller and his wife, Melissa Siebel Schiller, who is the sister-in-law of California Governor Gavin Newsom, said that the arrest was a “misunderstanding.”
“This is a private matter between us,” the couple said. “We love and respect each other. We are partners and will move beyond this together.”
Contacted Friday, Boies Schiller said in a statement that the firm would conduct a review “to better understand what happened.” The firm said that the Joshua Schiller asked for a leave of absence to focus on his family, which the firm agreed to provide.
Schiller’s tenure at the firm
Schiller started at Boies Schiller more than 12 years ago, one of a number of founders’ children employed by the firm.
One of the biggest cases he worked on included helping to overturn California’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage.
Insider previously reported that an internal complaint at BSF was lodged following comments made by Schiller in 2017, when he made what sources familiar with the matter described as inappropriate comments in front of a female associate.
At the time, the associate raised the issue with firm management and Schiller was taken off the case she was working on and reassigned to another matter, according to one of the sources who was directly familiar with Schiller’s reassignment.
Schiller, at the time, said via email that he was having an animated conversation with colleagues after a day of trial, and that he did not believe he said anything inappropriate.
Nicholas Gravante, who was then co-managing partner but since has left for another firm, had told Insider that he considered Schiller to be one of the firm’s next generation of “outstanding lawyers and business generators.”
Boies Schiller has undergone a major transformation in the last two years as Jonathan Schiller and Boies stepped back from day-to-day leadership, though they remain as managing partners. Over 2020, dozens of partners exited, including Gravante, and in December, the firm named three new managing partners.
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