The "Distinguished" Law Professor's Fear of Writing

When I arrived at Harvard Law School in 1964, there were several extremely distinguished professors who rarely wrote anything. Their reputations for brilliance were so high and so universal that they had nowhere to go but down. They feared--correctly, I suspect--that if they published widely, criticism would begin to emerge. So they limited their published output to the occasional "perfect gem," which they had polished for years. Other works were circulated as "preliminary drafts" or "works in progress," so as to preclude reviews or other criticism. The great fear was that their "perfect" reputations might be tarnished by a less-than-perfect piece of writing.

Alan Dershowitz, Letters to a Young Lawyer, 2001