Lawyer exits race to head Bar Association after scandal over huge fee in murder case

A candidate for head of the Israel Bar Association announced he was pulling out of the race Sunday, after having faced intense backlash for charging the family of a murder victim over half a million shekels ($170,000) for his services, most of which was refunded after the distraught family made the matter public.

Eyal Besserglick, a criminal lawyer based in Petah Tikva and a member of the Likud party, had offered his services to the family of Yuri Volkov, a healthcare aide who was stabbed to death in Holon in November after getting into an argument with a motorized scooter driver in a road rage incident, in a case that shocked the country.

In the aftermath of the incident, the Volkov family embarked on a crowdfunding campaign in order to support themselves as well as finance their legal case, raising NIS 915,000 ($270,000).

However, Hebrew media revealed earlier this month that Besserglick had charged the Volkov family NIS 585,000 ($170,000) — almost two-thirds of the amount raised, apparently exploiting the family not knowing this was not a standard fee in Israel.

In a post on his Facebook page Sunday, Besserglick — who has refused to admit any wrong despite sweeping condemnation — complained he had faced a “media lynching” and that a “red line was crossed” as members of his family, his staff and some of his clients were subjected to “harassment” from media outlets and others in the wake of the media reports.

“I am ending my race for the head of the association not because of the threats and the attempts to defame [me], but only to protect my family, my staff and my clients, who started receiving disturbing calls from members of the media and others who are trying to extract information from them while infringing on their privacy and committing criminal offenses,” he wrote.

He said attempts were being made “to damage my professionalism and my good name,” adding he had filed three complaints with the police over the matter.

Besserglick warned the kind of pressure he was subjected to would enable anyone who has signed a contract with an attorney for services to extricate themselves from the deal just by running to the media.

After the fee was revealed by the media, Besserglick had agreed to return NIS 485,000 ($143,000) of the sum to the family, keeping the remaining NIS 117,000 ($34,500) for the work he said his team had already carried out.

He said at the time that the negative media attention was a deliberate ploy by those opposed to his candidacy to head the bar association.

The previous head of the Israel Bar Association resigned at the end of last month after a media report accused him of performing an indecent act during a video chat with a young female lawyer.

Avi Himi, one of the loudest public voices against the government’s plan to radically overhaul the justice system, allegedly exposed himself during the video conversation and touched himself onscreen, Channel 13 news reported.

Himi did not immediately deny the report but said that the act was consensual. In the hours after it aired, he accused “the poisonous machine of those seeking to promote the judicial overhaul” of targeting him because he opposes it.

The Israel Bar Association will reportedly hold expedited elections for a temporary chief until a permanent director is chosen in June.