An article in the Globes newspaper, October 14-15, 2007, by reporter Noam Sharvit under the title "The End of the Cover-Up Era?".
The article deals with the implications of the Supreme Court's ruling in the Tnuva case. The ruling expanded the applicability of the "Promedico doctrine", which granted criminal defense to those who relied in good faith on legal advice. However, the court significantly tightened the criteria for receiving this defense, in an attempt to put an end to the phenomenon of "commissioned" legal opinions intended for cover-ups. Experts in criminal and antitrust law are divided on whether this ruling is beneficial or constitutes a further blow to executives and businesspeople.
The article extensively presents the position of Adv. Ronit Amir-Yaniv, who at the time served as head of the antitrust department and a partner at the Yigal Arnon & Co. firm (and today is a senior partner at Afik & Co.). Adv. Amir-Yaniv clarified that the ruling erases the formalistic trend in Israeli law and prefers the establishment of substantive criteria, moving away from the trends that characterized the Supreme Court's rulings during the tenure of President Barak, which emphasized catch-all terms like "good faith" and "fairness". According to her, the ruling sharpens and narrows the defense granted by the Promedico doctrine, and heavily burdens the burden of proof imposed on corporate executives, especially in light of Section 48 of the Antitrust Law. The ruling infuses a stricter interpretation into terms like "did not know" and "took all reasonable measures". Adv. Amir-Yaniv believes the ruling goes "too far". She claims that it does not give proper weight to the fact that the purpose of the "mistake of law" defense is to prevent the conviction of a good-faith defendant with no culpability, who used the reasonable measures available to them to ascertain the law. Referring to the criteria set by the court for protective legal opinions, she explains that a rule built on a grocery list of technical requirements does not truly prevent "commissioned" opinions. In practice, the list merely clarifies to businesspeople exactly how those opinions should look, and the actual result is only a heavier burden on managers in the field.