Aleš Zalar studied law at the University of Ljubljana and served as a judge and president of the District Court of Ljubljana as well as president of the Slovenian Judges Association. He was also Minister of Justice and acting Minister of Home Affairs in Slovenia.

In the last 12 years, he served as president of the European Centre for Dispute Resolution (ECDR), mediator, arbitrator, and as independent consultant in international rule of law reforms and dispute system design projects. He has also served as a policy adviser, trainer, and lecturer and been engaged in more than 30 countries worldwide.

For more than last 15 years, he occasionally assisted Ukraine in development of ADR system, constitutional reform, and since the establishment of the High Anti-corruption Court of Ukraine, he also supported its operation as senior legal adviser. He served as the first chairman of the Advisory group of Experts in Ukraine, which selects candidates for judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, and continues to serve as a member.

He is a member of various international institutions, inter alia, Mediation Centre Stakeholders Network of the EUIPO, International Institute for Justice Excellence, and of Council of the European Law Institute (ELI). For his contribution to development of mediation he received many special recognitions and awards, including from the Council of Europe (Crystal Scale of Justice) and from the US State Department (International Visitor Leadership Gold Star).

Since September 2024, Aleš Zalar has held the position of the Director of the Patent Mediation and Arbitration Centre (PMAC) of the Unified Patent Court.