As general background, the author first describes the procedures and functions of the Israeli High Court of Justice (HCJ). This is followed by a description of the general characteristics of the relevant body of government lawyers that represent the Israeli government before the HCJ. This body of government lawyers is the High Court of Justice Department in the Ministry of Justice (HCJD). The article concludes with a discussion of the adjudicating functions of the HCJD. On this latter topic, the article discusses pre-petitions (PP's) and the quasi-judicial role of the HCJD. A PP is a practice whereby a petitioner in dispute with a governmental agency addresses the HCJD and requests that the department review the case and intervene to change the original position of the authorized agency in favor of the petitioner. PP's are normally issued after the petitioner has exhausted all negotiation avenues with the public agency and its in-house legal counselors. Petitioners address the HCJD in order to get it to act as a third-party mediator, albeit not entirely neutral, that can review the case and render an enlightened judgment in accordance with public law. An analysis of PP's handled by the HCJD from 1990 through 1997 shows that the HCJD regularly deals with hundreds of petitions that are directed to the department against the decision of their client agencies. Although some of these cases would end up as Court cases, most would be decided by the government lawyer without any formal court procedure. In a significant portion of the cases examined in this study, the petitioner succeeded in achieving all or part of what was sought without intervention by the HCJ. When dealing with PP's, the HCJD acts as an external adjudication tribunal or an ombudsman no less than as he representative of its client agencies. 2 tables and 4 figures