An Interview with Alan Dershowitz

• Date: 01 July 2017

Published in Litigation, Volume 43, Number 4, Summer 2017. © 2017 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not

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Taking Offense

An Interview with

Alan Dershowitz

ASHISH JOSHI

The author is with Lorandos Joshi PC and is the editor in chief of Litigation.

“May you live in interesting

times,” says an ancient Chi nese

curse that mas querades as a

blessing. Alan Dershowit z has

indeed lived an interesti ng, if

often controversial, life. A pro -

fessor at Harva rd Law School

since the age of 28, he has rep-

resented movers and sha k-

ers of Holly wood, politic s, law,

sports, and business, i ncluding

Bill Clinton, Julian As sange,

O.J. Simpson, Claus von Bulow,

Marlon Brando, Mia Farrow, and

Mike Tyson. But it wouldn’t be

fair or accurate to label h im just

as a “celebrity lawyer.” While his

client list is indeed chockablock

with rit zy personalities, he h as

also played a key role in some of the most interesti ng litiga-

tion involving people who were not well known but whose cas-

es nonetheless raised rivet ing legal issues, such as whether a

husband can be prosecuted on cha rges of slavery for not doing

anythi ng about his wife’s alleged abuse of domestic employees.

See United States v. Sabhnani, 599

F.3d 215 (2d Cir. 2010).

Acclaimed as “the b est known

criminal law yer in the world”—

having lit igated or consulted on

cases throughout t he world, in-

cluding the Ukraine, t he Soviet

Union, the Rus sian Federation,

Israel, China, New Zeala nd,

Australia, t he Vatican, Libya,

The Hague, Pakist an, and several

European count ries—Dershowitz

has never shied away from con-

troversy or unpopular causes .

Nor does he hide behind what he

calls a “shield of feigned humi l-

ity.” Having played a role in many

of America’s precedent-settin g

legal cases of the pa st 50 years,

Dershowitz’s fire continues to burn br ight. The man who wrote

a book on chutzpah has st rong beliefs and opinions. And he will

let them be known. What ’s more, he’s not one to shy away from

taking a provocative st ance or conform his opinions to notions

of political correctness.

Illustration by S teven Noble