ISRAEL
April 2015
Legal Business
87
was a mere blip and that Israeli innovation
is well positioned to play an integral
role in Africa’s emergence as a genuine
economic power. ‘Over the past three years
approximately 20% of the sub-Saharan
countries have shown a steady growth of
around 7% and are becoming ever more
interesting to Israeli companies,’ he says,
suggesting that planned infrastructure and
transport improvements between Israel and
Africa can only help this phenomenon.
SEIZING INITIATIVE
Given the new markets that Israel is
now trading with, it represents a notable
challenge to Israel’s modestly sized law
firms – until recently, a firm of over 200 fee-
earners was considered exceptionally large.
Despite size limitations, Israeli firms
have been quick to position themselves for
cross-border work involving Asia and other
emerging markets. While the legal market
has a strong contingent of US-trained
attorneys that have emigrated to Israel, the
links to other markets are less obvious.
Israel-based lawyers frequently travel to
Silicon Valley and New York, and have done
for years, but now they are making the
journey to places such as Shanghai, Beijing
and Tokyo.
Yoav Sade heads Meitar Liquornik
Geva Leshem Tal’s China desk and has
seen a significant uptick in cross-border
transactions involving China in the last
five years. ‘There are more and more
opportunities and actual deals between
Israel and China. You regularly have
Chinese companies making acquisitions,
investments and taking minority stakes in
Israeli companies,’ he comments.
As China moves from an
economy based on cheap labour
and manufacturing for export,
to a market based more
on innovation, internal
consumption and services,
Sade sees a great
opportunity.
‘The Chinese market is interested
in technologies and innovations that
can add value in sectors like healthcare,
cleantech, internet, telecoms and media,’
he says.
Geva, who runs Herzog Fox’s China desk,
holds similar sentiments to Sade: ‘The cake
is going to get bigger in the next few years.
2015 will be by far the best year ever in
terms of deal size and volume size.’
Tehila Levi-Lati leads the China desk at
ZAG – S&W – an international firm jointly
owned by Israel’s Zysman, Aharoni, Gayer
& Co and US practice Sullivan & Worcester
– which has a co-operation agreement
with Chinese firm JunZeJun Law Offices.
Levi-Lati, who has been working on China
matters for over ten years, will relocate
to JunZeJun’s Chengdu office in 2015 and
continue to run ZAG’s China desk from
there. She believes there is no better time
to capture the expanding demand for
transactions involving China and Israel. ‘If
you ask me, China will be bigger than the
US in ten years’ time,’ she says.
It would appear that the fact-finding
missions and admiration between the two
countries will continue to blossom, because
of the clear mutual benefits. Daniel Green
and Simon Weintraub are partners at Yigal
Arnon and are members of the firm’s Asia
desk. Earlier this year, the two travelled to
Beijing and Shanghai and came back filled
with optimism. Weintraub says that it was
his first visit to mainland China and he
was struck by the vast amount of available
capital there, the advanced nature of the
country and the sophistication of the local
law firms. Indeed, since their visit, Green
and Weintraub have already welcomed two
visiting Chinese law firms.
Green remarks: ‘China has a lot of
capital for outbound transactions and they
are looking for places to park that money.
When you put it altogether, you can see an
emerging win-win partnership.’
LB
Bidder legal advisers
Seller
Seller legal advisers
Deal value
(US$m)
Fischer, Behar, Chen, Well, Orion & Co; Apax Partners
Global Law Office; Herzog
1,749
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Fox & Neeman
GKH Law Offices; Linklaters;
Shabtai family; IRS WEST; Meister Seelig & Fein
900
Morrison & Foerster
Marco family
Davis Polk & Wardwell; Freshfields
China National Chemical
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
623
Bruckhaus Deringer; Herzog
Corporation
Fox & Neeman
Cravath, Swaine & Moore; Dorsey
Bridgepoint
Travers Smith
370
& Whitney; Tulchinsky Stern Marciano
Cohen Levitski & Co
De Pardieu Brocas Maffei; Herzog
Veolia Environnement
King & Wood Mallesons;
340
Fox & Neeman
S. Horowitz & Co
Cooley; Fischer, Behar, Chen, Well,
Benchmark Capital;
300
Orion & Co
Sequoia Capital; Jerusalem
Global Ventures; Tallwood
Venture Capital; Vintage
Ventures Management
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
268
Latham & Watkins
Tene Capital
250
Goldfarb Seligman & Co;
Walla! Communications
230
Hengeler Mueller
Herzog Fox & Neeman
Accel Partners; Innovation
200
Endeavors; Glilot
Capital Partners
Source: Mergermarket
