DA-dum . . . But as his barely veiled delight at the past week's courtroom events showed, there are other benefits to this job. Soft-spoken, folksy, imperturbable, Boies has managed to ruffle each of Microsoft's four witnesses to date. The task, at least in the courtroom, is largely his. Boies will cross-examine most of the company's witnesses personally, in contrast to Microsoft, which parcelled out cross duties among its large legal team.
Boies has a distinct pattern on the stand.
At the start of a cross-examination, he builds a box for his victim, tossing several dozen seemingly innocuous questions. Then, with his subsequent queries, he gently herds the witness in, and patiently guards the gate until the white flag goes up. His interrogation of Allchin last week showed this sequence well. Microsoft considered this videotape a bomb that would blow a huge hole in the government's case. The government claims the browser is a separate software application, attached to Windows in an effort to crush rival software firms making separate browsers.