There is something deceptive in trying to trace the character of Adv. Eyal Rozovsky, a partner in the firm of Meitar and one of the most senior and veteran litigators in Israel. One, he despises politicians’ criticism of the justice system, which, in his opinion, aims to weaken it. On the other hand, he himself has quite a bit of criticism for the same system. On the one hand, an elitist Tel Avivian whose appearance and the walls of his spacious office shout elitism. On the other hand, he founded and served for a decade at the head of an association that provides legal representation for members of the Ethiopian community and himself adopted two children from the Ethiopian community.
On the one hand, most of his day and occupation is in the field of commercial litigation. On the other hand, he represented former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in the criminal proceedings against him and other senior members in criminal proceedings. On the one hand, he has previously been nominated twice for the Supreme Court. On the other hand he has a stormy temperament, likes to quarrel and express himself with sharpness and wit. On the one hand, having a conservative attitude regarding the role of the lawyer. On the other hand, he shows considerable familiarity with the legal arena of Twitter and even tries to extract from me information, which I seemingly do not have, about the identity of “Or Carmi”.
You previously represented former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in the Talansky affair, and in quite a few media cases. You follow what is happening inside the hall in the Alps trial and also what is happening outside the hall. What are your insights regarding the role of the lawyer in such media cases?
“At the beginning of my career as a lawyer (Rozowski was certified in 1987, AG), it would have been considered despicable if the lawyer had talked to the media about an ongoing case. It was considered unprofessional and unworthy, a self-respecting lawyer did not. But the world has changed and with it the profession. The battle today includes various battlefields, including the public battlefield. It cannot be neglected because it will have an effect on the overall result. “
Are judges influenced by the media discourse?
“We have excellent judges, but they too, like all human beings, are influenced by the media, and today also by social networks. Therefore, lawyers are sometimes required, in media cases, to be involved in this side of the campaign as well. But a self-respecting lawyer should remember that he is not Spokesman and not the client’s publicist, but his lawyer.
“I see lawyers who show up at the beginning of the investigation and say that the client is innocent, that the investigation will not yield anything and that the facts are the opposite of the suspicions. This is a wrong approach. You can say what the client claims, but do not determine things without knowing.”
What’s the problem with that? Maybe a lawyer should lie on the fence for the client?
“If you want to be taken seriously, take yourself seriously. You can not tell the court, let alone the media, what the facts are because you were not there. You can and should say what the evidence is and what the client’s version is.
“This approach undermines the lawyer’s credibility. Just as the case does not collapse every day and over and over again, so too will your level of credibility as an attorney not collapse every day. You lose your credibility once and that’s it. In the end, when a lawyer is perceived as an unreliable person, it harms the interest of his subsequent clients, or even the same procedure itself down the road. “
“The conditions in Netanyahu’s cases are difficult for lawyers”
In the introduction to his book The Secrets of Litigation, Rosowski describes the nature of the lawyers involved in litigation. He writes: “Apart from the competitive nature, litigants are passionate about performing in front of an audience. Kind of actors. It is not for nothing that we ‘appear’ in court. On the day of a hearing, we have an ‘appearance’. , The typist, the client, the other side, comes his power and the spectators in the hall – still we “appear” and play a role, want to impress and receive applause and applause “.
Rozowski’s remarks are 100 times more amplified when it comes to the Alps case, the case in which former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Bezeq group owners Shaul Elowitz and his wife Iris, as well as Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Noni Mozes are publicly held. To the public not just every day but sometimes every minute and two via Twitter.
Rozovsky represented the prosecution witness Ilan Yeshua in the 4000 case. The prosecution opened the evidentiary process with him in April 2021, and the surprising information he passed on to Securities Authority investigators as part of an interrogation in the Bezeq case led to the opening of the 4000 case. Walla!” At a hearing held for them, after the then ombudsman Avichai Mandelblit decided to prosecute them in the case subject to a hearing.
During the hearing, Adv. Rozovsky provided the plaintiff, Adv. Liat Ben-Ari, with hundreds of pages of arguments explaining why the companies should not be prosecuted. Among other things, Rozovsky claims that Bezeq was a victim of Elowitz as part of a Bezeq-Yes merger transaction, and therefore the corporation’s actions cannot be attributed to the corporation. This is when the company explicitly wanted to neutralize its impact on the deal in light of the fact that it had a personal interest, and it set up an independent committee for that purpose. The decision regarding the corporations is expected to be made soon.
What advice would you give to former Prime Minister Netanyahu’s lawyers?
Attorneys Ben Tzur and Hadad are excellent attorneys who do an excellent job. Because the case is so well-publicized and so interesting to the public, the conditions are very difficult for the lawyer. In such a case, you need to do your risk assessment in depth every day anew, and ask yourself if the strategy you set is still right or requires change.
Benjamin Netanyahu with his lawyers in court / Photo: FTP
“For example, if you planned to interrogate a particular prosecution witness for ten meetings and the investigation reveals that you fail to crack it and that further testimony harms the client, sometimes it is right to shorten the suffering, cut the interrogation first and reduce damages. Of course I do not refer to a specific witness. “Practical professional advice regarding a case that I know only from the media reports, and do not know the details of its details.”
We will leave the bag alone. What can you say about the defense attorney’s general strategy in a case like the Alps case?
“Such cases are a long-term marathon, full of successes and occasional failures. The defense ultimately strives to win the case and not win in tomorrow’s newspaper headline or today’s Twitter tweets. In such a case, there is great pressure, both public and political, from the client. “To bring immediate achievements. This is to externalize that the case collapses every day and to neutralize unpleasant things that are revealed during the trial. Netanyahu’s lawyers are excellent professionals, and I am sure they do not let the background noises affect their professional judgment.”
Recently a considerable number of judges have been appointed to the Supreme and District Courts, including the Economic Court. Among the appointments to the Supreme Court are Adv. Yechiel Kasher, a partner in the Tadmor firm, and the Economic Court appointed Adv. Kobi Sharvit, a partner in the Herzog firm. An argument that has been heard is that until the committee appoints lawyers from the private sector, it appoints the lawyers who represent the large and international companies, the strong players in the economy and not the lawyers who fight for the small citizen. Advocate Rozovsky, who himself represents the strongest players in the economy, rejects the claim.
“Appointment of lawyers to the district, and even more so to the top, is relatively not a very common phenomenon. Therefore, the system strives to appoint prominent lawyers with professional excellence. I think what guides the committee in these appointments is this excellence and not the question of what the lawyer’s ideology is and what kind He represents customers. “
“Lawyers enter the pursuit of cases”
Meitar, where Rosowski serves as a senior partner, is one of the largest law firms in Israel. It employs about 450 lawyers, including 150 partners and in addition about 65 interns. One building, despite being spacious and high-rise, does not contain all The workers and some of them are sitting in a nearby building.Mitar is part of a market trend: huge law firms employing hundreds of lawyers.
Without going into numbers, Meitar spends many millions every month just to pay lawyers and office workers. Doesn’t the fact that you’re such a big office require the office to chase bags wherever they are, and produce more and more work in order to feed the “monster”?
“From the day I was in the profession I was exposed to a phenomenon that characterizes law firms in Israel and around the world. Every day lawyers ask themselves why I will support these walls tomorrow and go in pursuit of cases. Agnon said about professionals who all their lives pursue work, and once they find it, they do not vacate “To do it but to pursue another job. This is a characteristic of law firms, both small and large, that need to receive new cases in all their areas of practice.”
What is behind the growth of law firms?
“This is an international phenomenon designed to allow a firm in Israel, especially one like Meitar who works with many foreign clients, to reach the high professional level that allows it to compete in the global law market. A firm of 50 lawyers, if not a boutique firm, will have great difficulty in many areas. “In front of foreign clients. The world of law proves that the big firms are also the good firms. Size and quality go together.”
“Inefficiency currently prevails in all instances”
Judges in Israel collapse under the burden of cases and the amount of proceedings that have no equal in the Western world. Criminal and civil cases have been managed for many years and the solution is not in sight. For the administration of the courts, the solution is to add hundreds of judicial standards to the trial courts and the district court. A solution that is unlikely to solve the problem, and in any case is not on the agenda for the Ministry of Finance.
“Our legal system has failed, and has not in the past, to deal quickly and efficiently with legal proceedings. This is with the exception of small islands in the form of the Economic Court at the beginning and the Lod District Court at the beginning, which proved that procedures can be streamlined through proper management. “The economic and the court in Lod will sweep the rest of the system after them and everyone will adapt to the good news that comes out of it. In practice, the economic court and the court in Lod have adapted to the system, and inefficiency currently prevails in all instances.”
Civil procedure regulations were supposed to solve the problem. They entered into force in January 2021, and serve as a tool for determining the rules for conducting civil legal proceedings, from the Magistrates’ Court, to the District Court, to the Supreme Court. Advocate Rozovsky claims that in practice, they failed. “The purpose of the regulations was to streamline the conduct of proceedings. The system hung multiple hopes in these regulations. The lawyers, for their part, were very concerned that the regulations would severely infringe on the justice and rights of the litigants. In the end, it did not happen and it did not happen. “
What is the explanation for the failure?
“Much of the inefficiency was due to the judges not applying and not using the tools they had under the old regulations. What is the point of amending new regulations if the judge does not implement them? If he amends new regulations, he will suddenly start implementing? Reality has shown no.”
Advocate Rozovsky reveals that he claimed this in real time, before the person who chaired the Justice Minister’s Advisory Committee on Civil Procedure Regulations, Moshe Gal, who previously served as a district judge and court director. Judge Gal replied, The atmosphere can only be changed by changing the diskette. “According to Rosowski, the diskette was replaced but the atmosphere remained as it was.
“The system is fixed and afraid of changes”
Advocate Rozovsky describes a mental fixation, which in fact characterizes in general the entire public system, which fears change and is the last to join the progress. “The system does not use zoom meetings. Most pre-trial hearings can be conducted in zoom, and there is no reason why these hearings should not be conducted in this way.
“Coordinating evidence dates can take place through a conference call, so why bother the parties to physically show up and burn a work day to set dates? Countless hours are wasted. In international arbitrations we even hold evidence meetings using the zoom, so judges can not hold pre-trial meetings using the zoom “Just mental fixation.”
In Globes we deal quite a bit withLegal procrastination And thus cases are conducted in court for years and years. Maybe the situation continues like this because it is actually in the interest of all parties?
“There is no doubt that there are quite a few cases in which at least one party does not accelerate and he believes that time is playing in his favor. Of an attorney, except in the interest of the client. In any case, the lawyers are the lawyers, and the one who trusts the management of the system effectively is the judge and not them. “
Adv. Eyal Rozovsky
personal: 63 years old, married and father of two, lives in Tel Aviv
professional: Partner in the Meitar office. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Hebrew and a master’s degree from the University of London. Qualified as a lawyer in 1987
Something else: He played for the Hapoel Jerusalem football team until the age of 17
*** Presumption of innocence: It should be emphasized that Benjamin Netanyahu and the other defendants in the Alps cases are only defendants, have not been convicted of an offense and have the presumption of innocence.