Judge Abraham Sofaer

Abraham SofaerAbraham D. Sofaer, the George P. Shultz Distinguished Scholar and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution (Stanford University) since 1994, has been a prosecutor, legal educator, judge, government official, and attorney in private practice in a long and distinguished career.

Sofaer served as legal adviser to the U.S. Department of State from 1985 to 1990, where he received the Distinguished Service Award in 1989, the highest state department award given to a non-civil servant.

From 1979 to 1985, he was appointed U.S. district judge in the Southern District of New York. He published numerous opinions and handled several high-profile cases, including the libel action against Time magazine by Israeli general Ariel Sharon.

From 1969 to 1979, Sofaer was a professor of law at Columbia University School of Law. From 1967 to 1969, he was assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. Prior to that, he was a clerk to Judge J. Skelly Wright on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., and to the Honorable William J. Brennan Jr., associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, from 1965 to 1967.

Judge Abraham Sofaer on NGO Monitor: “At a time when NGOs wield great influence in the public discussion about human rights around the world and in the Middle East in particular, NGO Monitor works to inform people about the motivations of these NGOs, the impact of their actions, and the sources of their funding. Democratic processes can easily be taken advantage of if NGOs are left unchecked – NGO Monitor holds them accountable.”