Gilead Sher

Gilead Sher is an Israeli attorney. He is the former Chief of Staff and Policy Coordinator of Israel's Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak. In that capacity he acted as Israel’s co-chief negotiator in 1999-2001 at the Camp David summit and the Taba talks as well as in extensive rounds of covert negotiations with the Palestinians.

Sher is a founding senior partner of the law firm Aaronsohn, Sher, Aboulafia, Amoday & Co., ranked one of Israel’s top twenty firms. His main practice areas are corporate law; project finance; international business ventures, investments and transactions; constitutional law; and dispute resolution. The firm represents private companies, as well as public, governmental and institutional entities.Sher teaches annually as a senior lecturer at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, mainly Dispute Resolution and Negotiations in Times of Crisis. Sher has also lectured at Harvard, Northwestern, and Pennsylvania universities in the United States; La Sapienza and Luiss universities in Rome; San Pablo and Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala. Finally, he is a guest speaker at the master's studies of Progetto SABB for excellence in Assisi, Italy.

Sher’s involvement in peace efforts started during the tenure of the late PM Yitshak Rabin, when as a reserve IDF Colonel he headed the negotiation project at the Planning Division of the IDF and served as delegate to the talks on the Interim Agreement. While practicing law, Sher often participates in several teams related to national security as well as in international forums focused on geo-political issues. He is involved in policy planning bodies, dispute resolution groups and NGO projects dealing with the Arab-Israeli conflict and is often consulted by government ministers and senior officials. Since 2001, Sher has often been a guest of foreign governments and institutions in conferences and consultations aimed at promoting regional peace, counter-terrorism global approaches, and a regional economic framework in the Middle East. Gilead Sher was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Merite in 2002 by the President of France, Jacques Chirac, as appreciation for his efforts to bring peace to the Middle East.

In 2002 Sher co-authored and published with the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute an Israeli Policy Initiative for unilateral disengagement, and in 2003 Legal Aspects of Settlement Evacuation for Harvard Law School. The English version of his book has been published by Routledge in 2006. Sher is a Colonel (Res.), a former brigade commander and deputy division commander in the Armored Corps of the IDF as well as a military judge.A member of the Council for Peace and Security and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (a board member, 2007-today and 1990-1991), Sher also serves as a founding member of The Citizen Empowerment Center in Israel, The Israel-British Business Council and the France-Israel Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

A graduate of the Hebrew University Law School and admitted to the Israel Bar in 1981, Sher completed courses in project finance at Harvard University (1999) and the World Bank (1996). Attorney Sher is President of Israel Shotokan Karate Association, holding fifth Dan, the highest possible grade in this School.Born in Israel, 1953, Gilead Sher is married and has four children.