Top Israeli Law Firms Earn Millions Advising Government Companies from 2023 to 2025
Three leading Israeli law firms each earned between 25 and 27 million shekels for providing legal advice to government-owned companies during 2023-2025. Arnon, Tadmor-Levy topped the list with approximately 27.2 million shekels, representing 6.66% of total legal fees paid by all government companies in that period. Goldfarb Gross Zeligman followed closely with 27.07 million shekels (6.61%), and Herzog Fox Neeman earned 25.74 million shekels (6.29%).
According to a report by the Government Companies Authority aimed at increasing transparency, government companies spent about 409.4 million shekels on external legal counsel over these three years. The annual spending was roughly 131 million shekels in 2023, dipped slightly to 128 million in 2024, then surged by 15.5% to 148 million in 2025. The market is highly concentrated: the top three firms accounted for 19.6% of total legal fees, the top five for 27.8%, and the top ten out of 265 firms provided 44.15% of services.
Most legal expenses were concentrated in infrastructure, energy, and transportation companies. Israel Electric Corporation led with about 62 million shekels spent on legal advice (15.1% of total government company legal fees), followed by NTA with 51 million shekels (12.5%), and Mekorot and Amidar with around 37 million each. These five companies alone accounted for 60.5% of total legal fees.
The highest single contract was awarded to Chen, Fisher, Gabay, which received 15.7 million shekels over three years from Israel Electric for debt collection, including 9.3 million shekels in 2025 alone. NTA paid Arnon, Tadmor-Levy about 13.3 million shekels for tender support from 2023 to 2025. The report also highlighted the lack of regulatory oversight, as the committee responsible for approving legal advisors and preventing market concentration had not convened for four years due to a shortage of members. It resumed activity in 2024 and retroactively approved contracts made during the hiatus.
This data release is part of an agenda led by Roy Kahlon, head of the Government Companies Authority, to boost transparency and competition in the market. It follows the recent reactivation of the committee appointing auditors after a decade-long freeze, aiming to improve governance in government companies.
