David Boies has a clever concept that he sometimes breaks out when he’s preparing a client for a deposition or cross-examination.

“I will sometimes say, ‘You know, this is going to be a very unusual experience. There’s going to be this thing that comes into the room and the thing is going to look like a human being,’” Boies told me as we were waiting on our lunch orders to come out a couple of weeks ago at Sam’s Grill in San Francisco.