Osler's Razor

Before the break, one of my favorite ethics students lent me his copy of Alan Dershowitz' "Letters to a Young Lawyer." It was kind of odd that he lent me a book (it usually goes the other way), but he said that the book had reminded him of some of the things I say in ethics class. I brought it along for beach reading.

It's a good book, and Dershowitz and I do agree on many things; almost everything, in fact. Some of the points ("choose a job you are passionate about") is standard commencement-speech stuff, but Dersh goes deeper into it than most people, exploring what that means in various contexts. He also advises those concerned about fairness in criminal law to become prosecutors, because of the discretion they have, and I chose that route for that reason.

Back in law school I was visiting a friend up at Harvard one weekend, and we went to a Harvard Square place for dinner. She introduced me to Dershowitz (a Yale Law grad like me, not Harvard), who quickly turned back to the group of students he was strategizing something with. It wasn't much of a meeting, but the image of him huddled in excited conversation with students was enduring-- that he was including his students in his work, trying to lead by example, and valuing their contributions. He was treating them like lawyers. I remember thinking that it was something I wanted to do someday.

Now I have that chance.