Meitar is the leading law firm in Israel in the commercial field, with a reputation and extensive experience in handling a wide range of local and international issues. The Firm is prominent in international transactions, mergers, and acquisitions, commercial litigation, hi-tech, capital markets, banking, antitrust, and taxes.
The Firm’s legal staff, which includes over 460 lawyers and interns, represents prominent clients in the local and international markets in complex transactions and complicated litigation. The Firm’s staff adheres to the highest standards of service and professionalism to provide the Firm’s clients with the best representation in the Israeli and international arena and assist them in achieving their strategic goals.
The Firm specializes in handling large and complex international transactions that it carries out, inter alia, with the most prominent and leading law firms abroad.
Many of the Firm’s partners and lawyers hold a foreign legal license, as well as the Israeli license, and many of them have previously worked at leading U.S. law Firms.
The Firm is rated by international rating guides such as Chambers and Partners, Legal 500, IFLR1000, GCR, and by local rating guides, as one of the leading and prominent law firms in Israel, specializing in corporate law, hi-tech, mergers and acquisitions, litigation, banking and finance, real estate, capital, and securities markets, energy and infrastructure, antitrust, intellectual property and technology, planning and construction, labor law and many other areas.
Prominent Areas of Specialization (Partial List)
Mergers and Acquisitions – The Firm has prominence and expertise in handling complex merger transactions. The Firm has handled most of the major mergers and acquisitions in Israel in recent years, as well as various takeover bids, reorganization of companies and conglomerates, changes in capital structures, and more.
Corporations – The firm provides legal advice to senior management and the boards of directors of leading companies in the Israeli market and handles shareholder agreements, options and option agreements, control transfer agreements and control transfers under struggle conditions, defense and remedies in takeover situations, asset receiverships, and liquidations.
Litigation – The Firm’s litigation department is the largest and leading in Israel, with extensive experience in representing clients in commercial cases in the various courts and judicial instances in Israel and abroad. The Firm’s team represents clients, Israelis and internationally, in commercial and business disputes, in civil matters, companies and corporations, securities, intellectual property, real estate, technology, computers and software, communications, taxes, labor law, and the environment.
Hi-Tech and Startups – The Firm’s dominance in the field is reflected in its extensive involvement in handling exits and significant investment transactions in the Israeli hi-tech market. The Firm represents a long list of leading companies in the field of hi-tech in Israel and abroad in various transactions, from the establishment phase, ongoing support throughout the company’s life to the exit phase (sale or issue).
Taxation – The Firm provides tax advice and specializes in providing opinions and tax planning on various issues, including international taxation, corporate restructuring, the capital markets, ventures, real estate, Value Added Tax, and customs. The Firm also represents taxpayers before the tax authority and in the courts.
Regulation and Administrative Law – The Firm’s regulatory department is the largest and leading in this field in Israel. The department specializes in advising and supporting local and international bodies with the various government ministries. The department’s lawyers have previously worked in various government and regulatory bodies headed by former senior civil servants.
Project Financing and Financing Agreements – The Firm represents banking corporations and other financial and institutional entities, including a consortium of banks providing significant amounts of credit. The Firm has represented banking corporations and institutional entities in providing financing to large corporations in Israel, within the framework of complex financing transactions, to finance control acquisitions and mergers.
Intellectual Property and Transactions in Various Fields of Technology – The Firm specializes in advising on a wide range of agreements, including research and development agreements, licensing agreements, and agreements for knowledge sharing and transfer. The Firm also deals with the registration and enforcement of trademarks and patents and issues of reputation and copyright, as well as litigation on intellectual property issues.
Commercial Agreements in Israel and Abroad – The Firm recurrently accompanies many Israeli and international companies in their activities in Israel and abroad and handles, inter alia, agency agreements, distribution agreements, goods supply agreements, complex agreements in the field of energy and natural gas transmission, consignment sales agreements, franchise agreements, partnership agreements, collaborations, strategic and joint venture agreements.
Antitrust and Regulation – The Firm, one of the leaders in the country in the field of antitrust, specializes in planning the structure of transactions, approvals of mergers and restrictive arrangements, commercial non-compete agreements, monopolies, government tenders, licenses, and permits.
Capital Markets and Securities – In recent years, the Firm has been involved, as the leading law firm, in most stock and bond issuances in Israel. In addition, the Firm has handled many capital issuances on the New York and London stock exchanges. The Firm handles the establishment of venture capital funds and the accompaniment of their activities, public offerings of securities and bonds in Israel and abroad, private offerings, and other complex issues in the capital markets.
Banking – The Firm’s banking department, which is Israel’s leading banking department, provides legal counsel to most banking corporations and financial institutions in Israel. The department handles all aspects of the activities of banking corporations and financial institutions, including establishment, licensing, regulation, representation before authorized regulatory bodies, including the Bank of Israel, the Supervisor of Banks, the Supervisor of Insurance, the Securities Authority, the Antitrust Commissioner and more.
Real Estate – The Firm handles real estate sales and purchases, real estate development, complex real estate projects (residential, commercial, industrial), compromises and development of agricultural land, financing real estate transactions and projects, leases, development and planning agreements, and construction.
Planning and Construction – The Firm specializes in promoting and accompanying some of the most significant projects in Israel in real estate and infrastructure. The Firm represents its clients in all statutory proceedings for approving master plans at all levels and in the legal proceedings in the various judicial instances. The Firm has extensive experience in representing clients in improvement levies and development levies and has particular expertise in representation in land expropriation proceedings and impairment claims for damage by virtue of a plan.
Non-profit Organization – The Firm’s nonprofit practice is one of the leading in Israel. The Firm represents non-profit organizations from all third sector channels (NGOs, public benefit companies, public and religious dedications, and Ottoman associations) in establishing, developing, and conducting themselves and providing comprehensive legal advice in all areas relevant to their activities.
Administrative Law – The Firm handles petitions to the High Court, assistance in the preparation of bills, legal advice on various issues in public administration and regulation, representation, and advice to multiple bodies in the government and the Knesset.
Hotels and Tourism – The Firm provides legal counsel to many clients, including local and international hotel chains, real estate groups, hotel owners, and hotel accommodation facilities. The legal advice in this field also includes handling all aspects and tangential areas such as planning and construction, labor law, intellectual property and licensing commercial agreements: marketing and maintenance agreements, and more.
Energy – The Firm handles a wide range of transactions in the field of conventional energy and renewable energy and the field of regulation in the electricity and natural gas economy. The Firm specializes in consulting for obtaining licenses for the generation of private electricity for stations that operate on natural gas and for stations that operate using solar energy and wind.
Defense, Homeland Security, Cyber, Aviation and Space Industries – The Firm accompanies and advises Israeli and international companies on defense, domestic security, cyber, aviation, and space issues in all regulatory and commercial aspects related to their activities. The Firm has unique expertise in the legal, regulatory, and commercial elements specific to these areas and a technological understanding of the industries in question.
Labor and Employment Law – Meitar is Israel’s leading law firm in representing employees of hi-tech companies. The Firm handles employment agreements, employee stock option plans, collective agreements, labor disputes, managing employees during mergers, and representation in labor courts. The Firm has unique experience and knowledge in various fields relating to the employment of workers in the hi-tech industries of the State of Israel, including the software industry, the electronics industry, the conductors and electronic components, the pharmaceutical industry, biotechnology, aviation, energy and more.
China and the Far East – The Firm’s partners have many years of unique experience handling transactions with companies, businesspeople, and governments in China and South Korea. The Firm regularly represents various clients in their business operations in China and Korea. The Firm cooperates with leading local law firms and provides its clients with the full range of services they require when entering or continuing business activities in these countries.
Tenders Law – The Firm handles the writing of tenders in various fields and, on a large scale, accompanies tender committees, accompanies tender bidders, and represents in administrative petitions in multiple areas.
Environmental Quality – The Firm is one of the few laws in Israel specializing in environmental areas. The Firm represents leading factors in the field, including some of the largest industrial companies in Israel, companies in fuel and its transportation, water and sewage corporations, municipal sewage associations, and local authorities. The Firm assists in preparing risk surveys and preparing the organization for extreme scenarios in the field of the environment.
Work Visas and Experts Mobility – The Firm has unique expertise in accompanying and providing legal assistance to corporations and global companies in the procedures for issuing permits for foreign experts to integrate them into work in Israel. The Firm provides professional advice that enables the receipt of legally required permits to ensure continuous work, free of financial damages or criminal records.
Local Authorities – The Firm advises local authorities and accompanies them in their activities, including accompanying authorities on the “Boundaries Committee,” establishing and representing water and sewage corporations, economic companies, and simultaneous projects in the municipal areas.
Communication – The Firm has unique experience both in the regulation of communications, journalism, and media. The Firm has handled recent significant transactions in the communications market, representation before the Ministry of Communications, accompanying participants in tenders in communications, including cable television, cellular, international communications services, content agreements, copyright, and defamation.
Liquidations and Receiverships – The Firm specializes in receiverships, liquidation of companies, creditors’ arrangements, and rehabilitation of companies in difficulty. The Firm has extensive and varied experience in dealing with companies in crisis. The Firm has been involved in many liquidations, receiverships, and freezing proceedings that are complex and significant in the Israeli economy. Several of the Firm’s legal teams have served as officials (liquidators, receivers of assets, or trustees in freezing proceedings) in complex insolvency cases.
Contributing to the Community – The Firm has a long-standing tradition of community involvement, assisting underprivileged populations and providing legal advice to many non-profit organizations and associations operating in the country. The Firm focuses on pro bono activities for associations and organizations working in significant areas for Israeli society and its promotion, such as organizations working to promote education, excellence, and sports in Israel as well as bodies working to reduce the number of road accident victims in Israel and bodies assisting new immigrants and the needy.
The Firm emphasizes social involvement, especially during the Corona crisis, and has participated in many volunteer activities over the past year.