Prof. David Hahn

Biography

Prof. David Hahn is a prominent expert on insolvency law, secured transactions and corporate law. Prof. Hahn served as the Guardian General and the Official Receiver of Israel. Previously, he was retained as an academic counsel to the Attorney General for insolvency law. Prof. Hahn was also a member of the audit committee in the liquidation case of the Trade bank.

During his tenure as the Official Receiver, Prof. Hahn served as the liquidator of the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) – the largest and state owned media entity in the country. Prof. Hahn managed the IBA’s operations and broadcastings, which lasted three years, until their termination. Additionally, in his capacity as the Official Receiver, Prof. Hahn monitored and accompanied the largest debt and recovery arrangements in the market, including ‘Hadassah’ medical center, IDB and Elbit Imaging.

As the Official Receiver of Israel, Prof. Hahn spearheaded and advanced the introduction of The Insolvency and Economic Rehabilitation Bill, in collaboration with the Attorney General’s office. In 2018 this bill was enacted into law, replacing old British Mandate legislation. Previously, he conceived and executed the Reform in Practicing Individual Bankruptcy Cases, which created timelines for all individual bankruptcy cases and promoted the discharge for such debtors in order to facilitate a fresh start in their lives.

Prof. Hahn has served for many years as an advisor to many large corporations in Israel’s capital market on various issues associated with corporate and insolvency law, including matters of corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, liquidation, reorganization, receivership, debt arrangements, corporate bonds, dividend distributions, and more.

During his years in the Government, Prof. Hahn has worked to improve and make the public service accessible to the citizens by developing and implementing online systems, as well as shortening and expediting bureaucratic procedures relating to rights of debtors and creditors, issuing inheritance orders and the probation of wills.

Professor Hahn serves as a member in the leading international organizations specializing in insolvency, namely the International Insolvency Institute (III) and INSOL International.

Recently, Prof. Hahn was appointed by the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) to prepare a special report on cross-border insolvency aspects of foreign corporations that offer bonds on the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange.

In 2017, Prof. Hahn was a lead nominee for Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel.

Prof. Hahn is a Faculty Member at Bar-Ilan University Faculty of Law, and frequently publishes academic papers on various subjects. Among his notable publications are the book The Law of Insolvency (2018), “The Liability of Directors upon the Insolvency of a Corporation under the New Israeli Insolvency Act” (forthcoming, 2020, Hebrew), “Concentrated Ownership and the Control of Corporate Reorganizations”, 4 J. Corp. L. Stud. 117-154 (2004) and “The Financial Crisis on 2009- Have Reorganization Proceedings in Emerging Markets Gone Bankrupt? Israel as a Case Study”, 12 U. Penn. J. Bus. L. 731 (2010).