Dershowitz Pens Novel

Frankfurter Professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz has a new legal thriller out. The difference is that this time, it's fiction.

"I had to write a novel to answer how a lawyer feels when he has to defend someone who he knows is guilty," Dershowitz said in an interview Friday to promote his first novel, The Advocate's Devil.

The novel tells the story of Joe Campbell, a basketball player with the New York Knicks. He is accused of raping a woman in a Cambridge hotel.

Campbell hires a top local attorney, who comes to realize that his client may be "guilty and dangerous." Throughout the novel, Dershowitz discusses issues that are always pressing for defense attorneys.

"The question of what an attorney does when he knows that his client is guilty is something that has been asked of me for the past 30 years," Dershowitz said. "With fiction I could concentrate on the texture, twists and turns of whether or not the client is innocent."

The attorney in the book is a Harvard Law School graduate and the book refers to several Cambridge landmarks.

Some of Dershowitz's real world cases are also mentioned in the novel, such as his defense of boxer Mike Tyson, who was convicted of rape in Indiana.

Asked whether the novel bears any similarity to the Tyson case, Dershowitz said: "Speculation about the basis for this book is wrong; it bears no relation to my cases, but refers to life in law."

Dershowitz said he is proud of the novel because it deals with pressing legal issues in a subtle manner. He said college students who are considering going to law school should be sure to read The Advocate's Devil.

"Law isn't for everyone because you have to make impossibly difficult choices," Dershowitz said. "Don't jump into law, you need to be an emotional, passionate person who can identify with injustice to function best as a lawyer."

Alan Dershowitz

excerpts from Friday's interview

The O.J. Simpson case: "I'm working on points of appeal, legal strategy and constitutional issues. I'm working on whether evidence of alleged spousal abuse should be allowed to be introduced in court. I also have a television in my office now--and I can watch two channels at once."

The media in the courtroom: "In general, I favor the media in the courtroom. But trials should be covered in an objective way, like a C-Span for courts (C-Law maybe), not by commercial television."

Law School Dean Robert C. Clark: "He's wonderful. Clark is serious, fair and an intellectual. I may disagree with him, but he's done a good job. The author of Poison Ivy (a recent book criticizing the Law School) must have been talking about a different place."

The Bell Curve, a recent book by Charles Murray '65 and the late Harvard professor Richard J. Herrnstein which argues that whites as a group are inherently smarter than Blacks: "I haven't read the book yet. But, we who are egalitarians and believe in equality should not be afraid of science; truth will show that all men and women are created equally and with equal potential."

His current case load: "I'm working on a free speech case and sexual harassment case. A man has been accused of circulating pictures of a woman [who is running for elected office] with her face on a naked body, like in Spy magazine. It is now in the Massachusetts Supreme Court."

His teaching: "I never miss class. I'm never late and I'm very responsible about my teaching."