David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

enough for spell-check to find the
correct spelling,” Boies says. “I can’t
tell you how many times I get the little
message that says, ‘No spelling
suggestions.’”
When Boies graduated from high
school, he didn’t have any great
ambitions. His grades had been
“ragged.” His family had moved to
Southern California by then, and the
local economy was booming. He got a
job in construction. “It was outside
work, with older guys,” Boies
remembers. “I was making more money
than I could ever have imagined. It was a
lot of fun.” After that, he worked for a
while as a bookkeeper in a bank while