Judge Abraham D. Sofaer has been the George P. Shultz Distinguished Scholar and Senior Fellow at The Hoover Institution, Stanford University, since 1994, and Professor of Law by courtesy at Stanford Law School since 1996. His areas of specialization include diplomacy, international law, national security, terrorism and water resources.
Judge Sofaer graduated from Yeshiva College in 1962 with a BA in History. He received his LLB degree from New York University School of Law in 1965, where he was editor-in-chief of the NYU Law Review and a Root-Tilden Scholar. He clerked for Judge J. Skelly Wright on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and then Associate Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. of the US Supreme Court. He served two years as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan (1967-69), ten years as Professor of Law at Columbia University, and six years as a US District Judge for the Southern District of New York.
In 1985 Judge Sofaer became the Legal Adviser of the US Department of State, and served under Secretary of State Shultz and Secretary James Baker unti1 1990, From 1990 to 1994 he practiced law in Washington, DC as a partner at Hughes, Hubbard and Reed.