Cabinet approves appointment of Avital Sompolinsky as deputy AG
Three of the six deputies of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara — the first woman to fill the position — are female
The cabinet on Sunday unanimously approved the appointment of Avital Sompolinsky to the position of deputy attorney genera of constitutional affairs.
The appointment was proposed by Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar earlier this year. Sompolinsky has served as the Knesset legal representative in the courts since 2017, where she has been responsible for formulating the Knesset’s position in constitutional petitions and representing the Knesset in the High Court. She has also provided constitutional and administrative opinions concerning Knesset activities and aided legal advisers of constitutional committees.
Sa’ar said that with Sompolinsky’s appointment, women will serve in half (three out of six) of the positions of deputy attorney general.
The search committee, headed by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, unanimously recommended Sompolinsky’s candidacy for the constitutional affairs position.
Sompolinsky’s appointment comes after Baharav-Miara was approved in February to replace former attorney-general Avichai Mandelblit. Baharav-Miara is the first woman to hold Israel’s top justice role.
Mandelblit stepped down upon completion of his six-year term on January 31, and State Attorney Amit Aisman had been temporarily filling the role.
Sa’ar told cabinet ministers that “the professional path taken by Sompolinsky in the State Attorney’s Office and then in the Knesset Legal Bureau, by representing the state and the Knesset in the Supreme Court on significant constitutional and public issues, was optimal for the position.”
The justice minister said that Sompolinsky’s new position is “an important role in the work of the cabinet in general and the Ministerial Committee for Legislation in particular.”
Sompolinsky replaces Raz Nizri, who left earlier this year after being left off of a shortlist of candidates to become attorney general.
In her previous positions in the Knesset, Sompolinsky, 43, provided legal advice on complex legislative proceedings in the Economics Committee and provided legal opinions on constitutional issues related to the committee’s legislation, as well as assisting the Knesset legal adviser in fulfilling his duties.
She began her professional career as an intern in the Civil Department of the State Attorney’s Office, where she later served as attorney, and she worked in the High Court Department in the State Attorney’s Office.
Sompolinsky, a married mother of five, holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in law from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
