“If we go after the wrong person, that means the right people are still out there doing it,” Dershowitz says.

He notes that because of disputed evidence in the case, the United Nations monitor for the trial as well as many family members of the victims questioned whether Al-Megrahi was really the bomber.

Much of the hoopla that usually ensues each time Dershowitz announces his next case clouds what he says are rigid guidelines he follows in choosing his clients, a task which he says is, “the hardest thing I do.”

Dershowitz says that out of the 5,000 requests he gets each year, he only chooses cases that arouse his sense of justice. After all, he says, he is a teacher trying to educate the public in the ways of justice and individual liberty, and that heavily influences what cases he decides to tackle.

“I have to get pissed off,” he says. “I have to feel that there is an injustice and I can do something about it.”

And he usually is able to do something about it.

After all, he is a former basketball player for the Brooklyn Yeshiva Academy high school team, who once played in Madison Square Garden, and Dershowitz loves to win.

“You can’t just throw a case. Trying your hardest to win is a Constitutional duty,” he says.

To a journalist attacking Dershowitz for his “nearly pathological need to have the last word,” Dershowitz responded in his typical combative approach, which has been described as “intellectual flying kicks and sharp elbows that batter any adversary into submission.”

“I don’t know anyone who doesn’t want to have the last word,” Dershowitz says.

After many high-profile years as an attorney and more than a few shocking victories, Dershowitz still says the highlight of his career is teaching at Harvard Law School.

“Seeing my students over 38 years and what great successes some of them have become is the greatest satisfaction for me,” Dershowitz says. “I guess I’m just trying to live up to my family name.”

—Staff writer William M. Rasmussen can be reached at wrasmuss@fas.harvard.edu.