---
alias:
- Alan M. Dershowitz
- Alan Morton Dershowitz
- Professor Dershowitz
born: 1938-09-01
category: Law Enforcement & Legal
created: 2026-09-25
location: Brooklyn, New York (born)
relations:
- end: 2013
  fn: 1
  role: Harvard Law School faculty; Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law
  start: 1964
  type: employed_by
  with: '[[Harvard University]]'
- end: 2008
  fn: 5
  role: member of defense team, Florida investigation
  start: 2006
  type: represented
  with: '[[Jeffrey Epstein]]'
- end: 2020-02
  fn: 1
  role: Senate impeachment trial defense
  start: 2020-01
  type: represented
  with: '[[Donald Trump]]'
summary: Alan Dershowitz is a Harvard law professor emeritus who was on Jeffrey Epstein's
  2006 to 2008 defense team, was accused by Virginia Giuffre, denied it, and settled
  the litigation in 2016 and 2022.
tags:
- Person
- AlanDershowitz
- JeffreyEpstein
- HarvardLawSchool
- NonProsecutionAgreement
- VirginiaGiuffre
- Defamation
updated: 2026-09-25
---

Alan M. Dershowitz (born September 1, 1938) is an American lawyer and professor emeritus at [Harvard Law School](/organizations/harvard-university/) who was a member of [Jeffrey Epstein](/people/jeffrey-epstein/)'s defense team during the 2006 to 2008 federal investigation in [Florida](/places/florida/) that ended in the [Epstein non-prosecution agreement](/events/epstein-non-prosecution-agreement/). In December 2014 lawyers for [Virginia Giuffre](/people/virginia-giuffre/) alleged in a court filing that Epstein had trafficked her to Dershowitz when she was a minor; Dershowitz denied the allegation from the outset, and it was withdrawn by her lawyers in a 2016 settlement and by Giuffre herself in a 2022 settlement in which she said she "may have made a mistake."[^1][^2][^3]

### Career

Dershowitz was born in Brooklyn and graduated from Brooklyn College and Yale Law School. He clerked for Judge David Bazelon of the District of Columbia Circuit and Justice Arthur Goldberg of the Supreme Court of the United States, and joined the Harvard Law School faculty at 25, becoming the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law. He retired from teaching in 2013. As an appellate and criminal lawyer he won the reversal of Claus von Bülow's attempted murder conviction, served as an appellate adviser to O. J. Simpson's defense in 1995, and in January 2020 joined [Donald Trump](/people/donald-trump/)'s defense team for his first Senate impeachment trial.[^1][^4]

### The Epstein Defense

Dershowitz was among the lawyers Epstein assembled after the [Palm Beach Police Department](/organizations/palm-beach-police-department/) investigation and the 2006 federal referral, alongside [Jay Lefkowitz](/people/jay-lefkowitz/), [Kenneth Starr](/people/kenneth-starr/), Roy Black, [Lilly Ann Sanchez](/people/lilly-ann-sanchez/), and others. The U.S. Attorney's Office under [Alexander Acosta](/people/alexander-acosta/) had drafted a 53-page federal indictment by May 2007 and instead signed the non-prosecution agreement on September 24, 2007, which immunized Epstein and "any potential co-conspirators." In a 2011 letter defending the agreement, Acosta wrote that the team, which he said included Dershowitz, Starr, and Black, had waged "a year-long assault on the prosecution and the prosecutors," that "[d]efense counsel investigated individual prosecutors and their families," and that one member of the team had warned him that "the office's excess zeal in forcing a good man to serve time in jail might be the subject of a book if we continued."[^3][^5]

### In the Prosecutors' Record

The [Justice Department](/organizations/department-of-justice/)'s [Office of Professional Responsibility](/organizations/office-of-professional-responsibility/) described Dershowitz as "a self-described close friend of Epstein." Palm Beach State Attorney [Barry Krischer](/people/barry-krischer/) told the office that Epstein's local counsel brought Dershowitz to see him and the assistant state attorney on the case, and that Dershowitz was "overly aggressive" and threatened, "We're going to destroy your witnesses; don't go to court because we're going to destroy those girls"; according to Krischer, Dershowitz so "tainted the waters" that Epstein also hired the local attorney [Jack Goldberger](/people/jack-goldberger/). In the federal phase Dershowitz joined [Gerald Lefcourt](/people/gerald-lefcourt/) and Roy Black. He and Black met the line prosecutors on February 20, 2007 to present "witness issues," and on June 26, 2007 he led the defense presentation at a meeting at the [Miami U.S. Attorney's Office](/organizations/us-attorneys-office-for-the-southern-district-of-florida/) with First Assistant [Jeffrey Sloman](/people/jeffrey-sloman/), Criminal Division chief [Matthew Menchel](/people/matthew-menchel/) and others, arguing that the state should handle the case because these were "traditionally state offenses."[^6]

The federal prosecutors' 51-page chronology of the case lists a document from Lefcourt and Dershowitz to Menchel titled "Data that strongly supports the arguments made that no charge can or should be made under 18 U.S.C. § 2422(b)." In September 2007 the lawyer Nathan Z. Dershowitz represented Epstein's employee [Harry Beller](/people/harry-beller/) and a second Epstein employee when they were subpoenaed to the federal grand jury, and on September 12 he told the prosecutor that Epstein's assistant [Lesley Groff](/people/lesley-groff/), also subpoenaed, would proceed by interview rather than testify. In late November 2007, after the agreement was signed, the chronology records an "Unscheduled meeting between Jay Lefkowitz, Alan Dershowitz and Jeff Sloman," a drop-in by Lefkowitz and Dershowitz. On December 7, 2007 the former federal judge Herbert J. Stern sent Dershowitz a 27-page letter, and the defense forwarded to the office the "independent ethics opinions" of Stern and the former Justice Department official Joe D. Whitley on the federal investigation.[^7]

In May 2008 the U.S. Attorney's Office's Professional Responsibility Officer asked the Department whether Alexander Acosta should recuse himself from the case because he was considering a visiting professorship at Harvard Law School in 2009, while Dershowitz, a Harvard Law professor, was representing Epstein "as a private, paying client"; the Department found no basis for recusal. In March 2009, while Epstein was on work release, Sloman met Dershowitz in Miami for what Dershowitz called "a relaxed drink and conversation." Dershowitz then thanked him for his "assurance that the feds will not interfere with how the [Palm Beach](/places/palm-beach-florida/) sheriff administers" Epstein's sentence "as long as he is treated like any similarly situated inmate"; Sloman replied that the office would not interfere but would object to alternative custody or home detention if asked. A week later Dershowitz thanked Sloman for his "willingness to call the sheriff and advise him that your office would take no position on how he handled Epstein's sentence," adding, "[L]et's put any call off for a while." In December 2009 Sloman told Dershowitz that the office opposed early termination of Epstein's community control and would object to transferring his supervision to the [U.S. Virgin Islands](/places/us-virgin-islands/).[^8]

### The Giuffre Allegation and the Edwards-Cassell Suit

In December 2014 [Bradley Edwards](/people/bradley-edwards/) and [Paul Cassell](/people/paul-cassell/) filed a motion in the victims' [Crime Victims' Rights Act](/concepts/crime-victims-rights-act/) case, [Doe v. United States](/events/doe-v-united-states/), seeking to add a client identified as Jane Doe 3, later publicly identified as Giuffre. The filing alleged that Epstein had trafficked her as a minor to Dershowitz, among others. Dershowitz said he had never met her, called the accusation fabricated, and said the lawyers should be disbarred. In April 2015 Judge [Kenneth Marra](/people/kenneth-marra/) struck the allegations as "immaterial and impertinent" to the case without ruling on their truth. Edwards and Cassell sued Dershowitz for defamation, and Dershowitz countersued.[^2][^9]

The suits settled on April 8, 2016. In a joint statement issued through the mediator Jeffrey Streitfeld, "Edwards and Cassell acknowledge that it was a mistake to have filed sexual misconduct accusations against Dershowitz," and Dershowitz withdrew his accusations that they had acted unethically. The statement said the dispute concerned the lawyers' due diligence and "not whether the acts of alleged misconduct in fact occurred." Giuffre was not a party and stood by her allegations at the time. Dershowitz required that the financial terms remain confidential. He released a statement by former [FBI](/organizations/federal-bureau-of-investigation/) Director Louis Freeh, whom he had given access to his records, that "[t]he totality of the evidence found during the investigation refutes the allegations made against Professor Dershowitz."[^2][^9]

### Giuffre v. Dershowitz

Giuffre sued Dershowitz for defamation in the Southern District of New York in April 2019, and he countersued in November 2019. Dershowitz separately sued her lawyer [David Boies](/people/david-boies/), alleging an effort to pressure Giuffre into false statements. In November 2022 the parties and Boies settled all of the litigation with prejudice, without costs or fees, in a resolution that the parties said "does not involve the payment of any money by anyone." Giuffre stated: "I have long believed that I was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein to Alan Dershowitz. However, I was very young at the time, it was a very stressful and traumatic environment, and Mr. Dershowitz has from the beginning consistently denied these allegations." She added that she "may have made a mistake" in identifying him. Dershowitz described the result as vindication. Giuffre died in April 2025.[^3][^10]

[^1]: Harvard Law School, "Alan M. Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus," faculty biography. https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/alan-m-dershowitz/ ; "Alan Dershowitz," *Encyclopaedia Britannica.* https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alan-Dershowitz
[^2]: "Lawyers Call Sexual Misconduct Case Against Dershowitz 'A Mistake,'" *The Harvard Crimson,* April 11, 2016. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/4/11/lawyers-drop-dershowitz-case/ ; Wiley Rein LLP, statement of Alan Dershowitz, April 8, 2016. https://www.wiley.law/assets/htmldocuments/April%208%202016%20AD%20Statement.pdf
[^3]: "Virginia Giuffre drops allegations against Alan Dershowitz, saying she 'may have made a mistake,'" *CNN,* November 8, 2022. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/08/us/alan-dershowitz-virginia-giuffre-allegations-dropped ; "Epstein victim drops her lawsuit against lawyer Alan Dershowitz," *NBC News,* November 2022. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/epstein-victim-drops-lawsuit-lawyer-alan-dershowitz-rcna56250
[^4]: *The Harvard Crimson* and *Encyclopaedia Britannica* on the von Bülow reversal, the Simpson defense, and the 2020 impeachment defense. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alan-Dershowitz
[^5]: Conchita Sarnoff and Lee Aitken, "Jeffrey Epstein: How the Hedge Fund Mogul Pedophile Got Off Easy," *The Daily Beast,* March 25, 2011, quoting R. Alexander Acosta's 2011 letter. https://www.thedailybeast.com/jeffrey-epstein-how-the-hedge-fund-mogul-pedophile-got-off-easy/ ; Opinion and Order, *Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 v. United States*, No. 9:08-cv-80736-KAM (S.D. Fla. Feb. 21, 2019), ECF No. 435, at 3, 7-8. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.317867/gov.uscourts.flsd.317867.435.0.pdf
[^6]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284, Prior DOJ Disclosures, Office of Professional Responsibility report on the Southern District of Florida's resolution of the Epstein investigation, November 2020, pp. 8, 14 to 15, 35, 156. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/Prior%20DOJ%20Disclosures/Memos.%20&%20Correspondence/EFTA02847284.pdf
[^7]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00224943, DataSet 9, "Epstein Investigation Timeline," Exhibit A-1, privileged chronology of the federal investigation, pp. 9, 12, 14, 23, 26. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00224943.pdf
[^8]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284 (see note 8), pp. 117 to 118, 152 n. 224.
[^9]: "Settlement Reached In Litigation Between Alan Dershowitz, Paul Cassell, And Bradley Edwards," *Above the Law,* April 2016. https://abovethelaw.com/2016/04/settlement-reached-in-litigation-between-alan-dershowitz-paul-cassell-and-bradley-edwards/ ; "Sex allegations against Dershowitz called 'mistake,'" *The Boston Globe,* April 8, 2016. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/04/08/settlement-reached-alan-dershowitz-defamation-case/JJ7u49HDH0gNb888f9v06J/story.html
[^10]: "Virginia Giuffre drops allegations against Alan Dershowitz, saying she 'may have made a mistake,'" *CNN,* November 8, 2022, on the April 2019 complaint, the November 2019 counterclaim, the claims against David Boies, and the terms of the global settlement. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/08/us/alan-dershowitz-virginia-giuffre-allegations-dropped