In 2018, Boyd Johnson left behind his white-collar defense practice at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr to take the top legal role at Soros Fund Management, the investment firm controlled by the billionaire businessman and philanthropist George Soros.

At Wilmer, Johnson had been a co-leader of the firm’s investigations and criminal litigation group. As the general counsel of Soros Fund Management, he came to view the legal industry in a new way, from a perspective that revealed how law firms sometimes fell short even while charging hourly rates in the four-figures.