Staff
Dr. Ido Baum
Academic Director
Dr. Baum heads the Brandeis Institute. He is an Associate Professor (Israeli Senior Lecturer) at the Haim Striks Faculty of Law at the College of Management where he has been teaching since 2008. He served in several positions in the faculty, including Vice Dean from 2015 to 2019.
Dr. Baum’s research and teaching focuses on law and economics, corporate and financial Law, securities regulation, civil procedure and media law.
He was a visiting professor and researcher in various institutions including Georgetown University, University of Seville, Ronald Coase Institute, Warsaw School of Economics, Peking University School of Transnational Law and the European Masters Programme in Law and Economics in the University of Hamburg.
Dr. Baum earned his doctoral degree from the Institute for Law and Economics at Hamburg University (summa cum Laude) and he holds a Master degree in Law and Ecocomics from the European EMLE programme and an LLM and LLB from Tel Aviv University.
Before joining the law faculty, he was spokesperson of the Israeli Ministry of Justice and later served as the legal assistant for economic and fiscal affairs to the Israeli Attorney Gebnneral Elyakim Rubinstein. He was also a lawyer frothe Clams resolution Tribunal in Zurich, resolving claims regarding pre-WWII bank accounts in Swiss banks.
Dr. Baum has more than 30 years of experience in journalism and since 2008 he is the in-house legal affairs commentator for the financial newspaper TheMarker.
Dr. Revital Yosef
Senior Research Fellow
Dr. Revital Yosef is a corporate governance researcher at the Brandeis Institute and a core faculty member at the School of Economics of the College of Management Academic Studies. Dr. Yosef completed her Ph.D. studies in Finance at Bar-Ilan University and her dissertation work examines the benchmarking practice in CEO compensation design in the U.S. She holds a B.A. degree in Economics and an M.B.A. degree in Finance from Bar-Ilan University, both completed with magna cum laude. Prior to academia, she worked as a Senior Valuation and Financial Analyst at a leading consulting firm. Her research interests span empirical corporate governance, corporate Finance, ESG issues and primarily executive compensation.
Adv. Tal Hefling
Senior Research Fellow
Tal Hefling is a lawyer and a PhD candidate in the Law department at Bar-Ilan University. She specializes in capital markets, financial institutions and pension schemes, corporate governance and FinTech. Between 2018-2022 Tal was a Senior Advisor to the Director General of the Capital Markets, Insurance, and Savings Authority, at the Ministry of Finance, alongside Dr. Moshe Bareket. In this position, she led reforms in the areas of non-bank financial services and corporate governance of institutional investors. Prior to this position, Tal has held various legal and executive positions in the financial industry, including institutional investors, Boutique law firms where she advised public companies, financial advisory and investment banking firms, and Fintech companies. Tal holds an LLB (Law) from the Buchmann Faculty of Law and a BA in Business from the Coller Business School, and an MA in public policy, all from Tel Aviv University.
Adv. Yehudit (Judith) Pintow
Senior Research Fellow
Dr. Harel Menashri
Senior Research Fellow
Following 36 years of experience in the defense system, Dr. Harel Menashri is an expert in the fields of cyber, technological research and intelligence, and cyber warfare. His background includes a decade of service in various positions within the IDF and approximately 25 years in Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office. Over the past two decades, Dr. Menashri has specialized in the cyber domain, focusing on critical national infrastructure protection, research systems, and safeguarding critical infrastructures (such as IT and SCADA) against cyber threats. His expertise extends to implementing cutting-edge technologies, responding to unusual events, and managing emergency situations. Dr. Menashri played a pivotal role in shaping Israel’s security policy in cyberspace. He was instrumental in establishing the terrorist arena within the Israel National Cyber Directorate (AMN) and was also a founding member of RAM (the State Authority for Information Security). Currently, Harel leads the cyber field at the Holon Institute of Technology (HIT), which he co-founded. He serves as a senior lecturer across various faculties, including Science, Industrial Engineering and Technology Management, Multidisciplinary Studies, and Diploma Studies. Additionally, Harel is a lecturer at Bar Ilan University and Tel Aviv University, a research fellow at the Institute for Terrorism Research at Reichman University, and provides consultancy services to organizations both in Israel and globally.
Prof. Amit Zac
Senior Research Fellow
Amit Zac is a professor of law and economics at the University of Amsterdam and a visiting researcher at the Center for Law and Economics at ETH Zurich. Before joining the Brandeis Institute, Amit was a PhD student and teaching assistant in competition law and empirical research methods at the University of Oxford in the UK, and a graduate of the Erasmus University in Rotterdam and the University of Hamburg in law and economics. Before joining the academy, Amit interned at the Supreme Court of Israel, worked as a legal advisor at the Competition Authority and as a private antitrust lawyer in Tel Aviv.
Amit’s work focuses on competition policy and its welfare implications, examining social and economic challenges related to the digital economy, and economic inequality and environmental effects in particular. His research combines legal and policy analysis with empirical studies and computational tools, in an attempt to bridge legal research with the social sciences. In his latest research project, funded by the Swiss National Research Foundation SNSF, Amit, together with other researchers, developed computational tools for fully automating the examination of compliance with EU privacy laws (GDPR) of approximately 100,000 sites on the Internet.
Prof. Amit Zac
Senior Research Fellow
Anat Sorek, Attorney at law, joined Brandeis Institute after serving as a senior legal associate to the President of the Supreme Court of Israel, Judge Esther Hayut, for three years. Prior to that, Anat worked as a law apprentice and Adv. Anat Sorek joined the Brandeis Institute after serving as a senior legal assistant to the President of the Supreme Court of Israel, Judge Esther Hayut, for three years. Before that, Anat worked as an intern and a lawyer in the intellectual property and litigation department at the S. Horowitz law firm for five years. Anat holds a bachelor’s degree (with honors) and a research master’s degree (with distinction) in law from Bar Ilan University. Her thesis, supervised by Prof. Jacob Nussim, dealt with public financing for innovation. Anat wrote together with Prof. Nussim an article on tax incentives for innovation that was published in the Virginia Law Review journal and appeared at international conferences in the field of law and economics where she presented the research. During her studies, Anat won scholarships and prizes, including first prize in a national competition on behalf of the Patent Authority for writing an outstanding article in the field of patents and antitrust law; First prize in the Prof. Edelman competition for writing an outstanding article in the field of patents at Bar Ilan University; Scholarship for participation in an international workshop for outstanding economics and law students on behalf of the Ronald Coase Institute, and more.
Dr. Efrat Dressler
Senior Research Fellow
Dr. Efrat Dressler is a senior researcher at the Brandeis Institute. Her research expertise is in Corporate governance, Corporate finance, Institutional investors, Voting behavior, Behavioral finance, as well as household finance of Ultra-Orthodox Jewish. Her papers were published in prestigious academic journals such as Journal of Corporate Finance and Journal of Business Ethics. Dr. Dressler has earned her Ph.D. in Finance from the Jerusalem Business School – The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and spent her postdoctoral fellowship at Wharton Business School – The University of Pennsylvania. She has been lecturing finance classes since 2012 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Efrat is also a Financial Risk Manager (earned from GARP – Global Association of Risk Professionals) and a researcher at the Ultra-Orthodox program of the Israeli Democracy Institute.
Adv. Ira Hardy
Senior Research Fellow
Ira Hardy is a senior researcher at the Brandeis Institute. Ira’s research combines constitutional and administrative law with concepts drawn from political economy, public administration, and media.
Ira has been working as a commercial and administrative litigation lawyer for the past 7 years at S. Horowitz & co., and specializes in the fields of administrative law, economic regulation, competition, energy and higher education.
Ira holds a bachelor’s degree (Magna Cum Laude) in law and a master’s degree in business administration (MBA), both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Adv. Adi Benami
Administrative Manager, Research and Content Coordinator
Adi Benami graduated with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in public law (high honors) from Tel Aviv University. During her studies, she was included in the dean’s list of honorees, worked as a research assistant in various fields of law, and was an editorial member of the journal “Society Law and Culture”. She also participated in the clinic for the rights of Holocaust survivors at the university. After her internship and legal position in the intellectual property department at Herzog Fox Naaman & Co. law firm, Adi served as a legal advisor to the marketing representative of Sandisk and Western Digital in Israel. She was also a teaching assistant in various courses at the Buchman Faculty of Law in Tel Aviv University and other academic institutions and has volunteered to accompany the “Paamonei Ruach” association (for the mutual rehabilitation of both humans and animals) as its legal advisor. Currently, Adi is working on her thesis at Tel Aviv University, which focuses on the regulation of home education in Israel.
Adv. Shir Abrahams
Research Assistant
Shir graduated with a bachelor’s degree in both psychology and law (with honors) from the Reichman University. During her studies, Shir was an editorial board member and the editor of the legal journal “Law and Business”.
Shir interned in the fiscal department of the state attorney’s office, where she was involved in civil and criminal tax cases discussed in the Supreme Court. For the past two years, Shir has been accompanying legal courses at several universities as a teaching assistant.
Adv. Tamar HaCohen
Research Assistant
Adv. Michal Shakargy
Research Assistant
Michal graduated with honors from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with a bachelor’s degree in law.
Throughout her academic journey, she served as both a teaching and research assistant in private law. Additionally, she took part in an exchange program at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC.
In 2022-2023, Michal interned at the Arnon, Tadmor-Levy Law Firm, focusing on tax law and antitrust law.
Lior A. Goldman
Research Assistant
Lior A. Goldman-Shmilovich is a research student in The Zvi Meitar Center for Advanced Legal Studies. Lior has an LL.B from the college of management academic studies (Magna Cum Laude). Lior won several scholarships during her academic studies, including the Hammer Scholarship. She is an experienced legal editor (law journals; books; legal blogs). She works as a teaching assistant in both Tel Aviv University and the college of management academic studies. Lior has several publications that were accepted for publishing, individually and with Dr. Ido Baum. Her main research interest is Public Law Theory. Her particular area of focus is free speech theory.
Afek Even Chen
Research Assistant
Afek Even Chen is a student at the Chaim Striks School of Law at the College of Management. As part of her studies, she actively participates in the “Law and Health” clinic, volunteers at the college’s “Hugging Embrace” command center, and performs adjudication in the world of project management in the new era.
Linoy Itzhaki
Research Assistant
Linoy Itzhaki is a law student at the College of Management.
As part of her studies, she takes part in the clinic for the promotion of equality and in the “Technology and Democracy Law” workshop.
Ohad First
Research Assistant
Ohad First is an undergraduate student at the Haim Striks Faculty of Law in the College Of Management.
During his studies, Ohad holds a student position in the Tel Aviv District Public Defender’s Office.
Karin Vaknin
Research Assistant
Karin is a bachelor’s degree graduate of the Haim Strix Faculty of Law of the College of Administration, as part of the “Global” honors program. During her studies, Karin participated in the summer course at Queen Mary University in London and Oxford University, which focused on EU competition law.
During her academic studies, Karin was a staff member in the academic journal “The Law”.
Karin will start her internship at the Herzog, Fox Naaman & Co. law firm in March 2024.
Keren Dror Ben Ami
Projects, Events and Conferences Manager
Keren is responsible for the implementation of projects, events, and conferences as well as the planning and execution of marketing and sales activities. In addition to her position at the Brandeis Institute, Keren serves as the project manager of the Chaim Strix Faculty of Law in the College of Administration, where she has been responsible for the management of the faculty’s dean’s office and the coordination of the faculty’s activities in various aspects over the last ten years, and was a consultant at the schooling consulting center at the College of Administration.
Before joining the College of Administration, Keren gained a varied experience in the field of communication as a journalist in the printed press and as a consultant in the field of public relations and advertising. Keren graduated with a bachelor’s degree in social sciences and communication from the Open University.
