Do As I Say, Not As I Do
GOELMAN, AITAN
Do As I Say, Not As I Do Alan Dershowitz's advice to young lawyers. BY AITAN GOELMAN Claiming to follow in the footsteps of Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, Basic Books has begun publishing a...
...The idea seems, on its face, highly mockable: Does anyone, even Alan Dershowitz, want a legal profession staffed with young Dershowitzes...
...Although he repeatedly refers to his involvement in the Simpson case—and reprints, in whole, two letters that he wrote in response to articles criticizing him for his participation— Dershowitz never confronts the real issue: why a self-styled crusader against injustice participated in the legal defense of a multi-millionaire who already had more than sufficient counsel...
...He counsels young attorAitan Goelman is an attorney in New York...
...Der-showitz argues convincingly that perfectionism is an unproductive trait, in lawyers as well as academics, and he refers fondly to the "many imperfect books" he has written...
...Dershowitz's animus toward the Supreme Court is complete...
...Simpson...
...Unless that word "learned" is a coded apology, this is difficult to square with his involvement in the O.J...
...Dershowitz also gets it wrong when he generalizes about prosecutorial misconduct...
...Still, Letters to a Young Lawyer doesn't aspire to be a literary masterpiece...
...When he whines that "there is no professional or personal gratification in arguing to a bunch of close-minded automatons," he seems to imagine that the role of the Supreme Court is to provide advocates with professional or personal gratification...
...Dershowitz revels in his image as a legal bomb-thrower...
...One of the first volumes, entitled Letters to a Young Lawyer, is by the ubiquitous Alan Dershowitz, Harvard law professor and celebrity lawyer for such clients as Claus von Bulow and O.J...
...Although he admits he has little experience with juries (and thus, presumably, little experience in criminal cases at the trial level), he confidently asserts that prosecutors routinely engage in suppressing evidence and suborning perjured testimony...
...Virtually all of the anecdotes in the book revolve around Dershowitz himself, and each courtroom story involves a case that Der-showitz ultimately won...
...The result is an odd mix of cynicism and idealism, captured in lines such as "there is no perfect justice, . . . but there is perfect injustice, and we know it when we see it...
...In Letters to a Young Lawyer, Der-showitz shows that he has some insight into himself...
...Although the book is deeply self-referential, it's generally not self-indulgent...
...Letters to a Young Lawyer also effectively debunks myths of the "superlawyer...
...Anyone who has actually tried criminal cases knows that Dershowitz has it backwards...
...Dershowitz notes the great majority of cases are decided on the evidence, not on the relative abilities of the attorneys, and that renowned advocates are likely to come to court unprepared, lulled into complacency by their own press...
...Much of Dershowitz's advice is un-controversial...
...Letters to a Young Lawyer has other shortcomings...
...Dershowitz claims to choose his clients when "I am pissed off by an injustice being perpetrated against the person, whether he or she may be innocent or guilty...
...extravaganza, which seemed motivated by nothing except Der-showitz's desire to join the legal "Dream Team" and thereby cement his status as one of America's uber-lawyers...
...Simpson...
...neys to work hard, choose an area of practice they enjoy, and refuse to sacrifice that area for greater remuneration in other areas...
...Dershowitz sees himself, on the one hand, without irony, as a crusader against injustice who enjoys nothing more than a good, legal fight against unfairness...
...The weakest part of Letters to a Young Lawyer is the end...
...The brief rumination on the roots of morality is superficial, and the chapter on pluralism is a callow paean to cultural diversity...
...He says he will likely never be appointed to any public office, and he views his "non-confirmable" status as a badge of honor, a proof of life lived well and unafraid...
...I have learned never to confuse celebrities with fascinating people, or high-profile cases with important ones...
...In an effort to gain a tactical advantage or preserve grounds for a potential appeal, defense attorneys routinely accuse prosecutors of every form of misconduct from discovery violations to using race to strike potential jurors...
...The overwhelming majority of these accusations are frivolous, made with such numbing frequency that they have become meaningless...
...He rejects false modesty, recognizing the uniqueness of his own professional experience, while candidly admitting that his career developed "by complete accident...
...But, in fact, novice attorneys could do worse than read this book...
...But when he insists that he was "never particularly interested in holding any public office," there's a distinct taste of sour grapes...
...In a chapter entitled "Have a Good Enemies' List," he declares that "the world is full of evil people and it is important to stand up to evil," and proclaims proudly, "I am a provocateur, not a pacifier...
...It's true that Dershowitz has paid a price for alienating people on every side of American political and legal discourse...
...The book's most striking flaw may be its failure to explain adequately Der-showitz's decision to help represent O.J...
...It's trenchant and occasionally thought-provoking, and it manages to avoid the cliche-ridden paeans to the majesty of the profession that decorate most works in the genre...
...BY AITAN GOELMAN Claiming to follow in the footsteps of Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, Basic Books has begun publishing a series of mentoring books designed to provide advice to young people beginning their careers...
...This is another, but it's not without virtues...
...Perhaps that's why he calls the Supreme Court majority in Bush v. Gore "robed cheaters...
...With regard to legal "giants" of the past, Dershowitz points out the sainted Clarence Darrow "almost certainly bribed witnesses and jurors to secure acquittals or hung juries in criminal cases," and he describes Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas as a self-righteous hypocrite...
...He further accuses many defense attorneys of complicity in this wrongdoing, alleging that they regularly overlook prosecutor-ial misconduct in the interests of professional comity...
...But that proves only that he is a lawyer...
Vol. 7 • November 2001 • No. 11
