Two partners have departed Boies Schiller Flexner for rival firms, and a counsel who served as the firm's pro bono coordinator has taken a position with a litigation funder, according to a series of announcements Tuesday.

The moves bring the number of partner exits from Boies Schiller this year to to at least 10.

In New York, longtime Boies Schiller partner Chris Duffy is taking his complex commercial litigation practice to Texas-based Vinson & Elkins. Duffy, who was a partner at Boies for 18 years, has worked with clients including Barclays, Goldman Sachs, the New York Yankees and SpaceX, according to his former Boies biography.

Vinson chairman Mark Kelly cited Duffy's addition as the latest sign of the firm's commitment to growing its New York presence. "He is a talented trial lawyer whose practice complements deep relationships and capabilities we have in the financial services sector across the firm," Kelly said.

Also in New York, former Boies Schiller counsel Joshua Libling has joined the litigation finance company Validity Finance, where he'll serve as portfolio counsel. Libling, who also worked on complex commercial litigation matters, was Boies' pro bono coordinator, working closely with firm co-managing partner Jonathan Schiller on the firm's extensive pro bono efforts.

In Washington, D.C., Douglass Mitchell is joining Jenner & Block in a move that will reunite him with two other recently-departed Boies Schiller partners, Lee Wolosky and Dawn Smalls, who joined Jenner in February. A veteran litigator with particular experience in terrorism-related matters, he and Wolosky have frozen more than $2 billion in Iranian assets on behalf of terror victims, Jenner said.

"Doug is the nation's foremost lawyer in enforcing US terrorism judgments abroad and is experienced litigating cases against banks under the Anti-Terrorism Act," Wolosky said in a statement.

The latest departures from Boies Schiler come amid a slow-moving leadership transition for the firm, which has included lifting long-time partners Nicholas Gravante and Natasha Harrison into managing partner roles along with David Boies and Schiller earlier this year.

In June 2019, the firm also announced it had replaced its office leaders in New York; Washington, D.C.; Oakland, California; Albany, New York; New York City; and Los Angeles.

In previous interviews, Gravante and Harrison stated that the firm is looking to do "fewer things well" in 2020 and doesn't necessarily see all of the partner departures as bad for business.

In interviews, both Duffy and Libling said that the recent changes in leadership did not factor into their respective decisions to leave the firm.

"Nick is one of my closest friends at the firm and in the industry," Duffy said, calling his elevation to co-managing partner "a great thing for the firm."

Gravante said the firm wishes Duffy and Mitchell well in their new endeavors.

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