The Legal 500

Legal Developments in Israel

• Behind Bars

  The judgment of the Supreme Court, which cancelled the establishment of private prisons in Israel, may well have brought satisfaction to all the human rights advocates in Israel – but it has dealt a critical blow to the business community, which ever since the Aprofim ruling has been living with the feeling of legal uncertainty. An even stronger blow has been dealt to the development of our worn-out infrastructures.
  - Gornitzky & Co

• Israeli Intellectual Property Law Updates

  New Office of Chief Scientist Instructions for Special Applications and Approvals in the Frame of the R&D Law
  - Gross, Kleinhendler, Hodak, Halevy, Greenberg &

• EVERY REGULATOR IS KING

  In the modern world, there is a clear trend of increasing regulation. This is by no means an ideal situation as the regulations to a certain extent "appropriate" legislative powers from the legislative authority to the executive authority. But if even the Minister is unable to call the Regulator to order- this is a recipe for normative disorder. An article by Adv. Pinhas Rubin, Chairman of Gornitzky & Co., Israel.
  - Gornitzky & Co

• From Draining the Hula Lake to the Draining of Bureaucracy

  Why Large-scale Infrastructure Projects are bogged down and how to free the Bottleneck. There is a high level of involvement of the courts in daily life in Israel. Almost every large-scale project, even though it may be backed by a plethora of detailed and lengthy contracts drawn up by teams of lawyers, eventually reaches the portals of the courts. An article by Adv. Moriel Matalon, Managing Partner of Gornitzky & Co., Israel.
  - Gornitzky & Co

• The New Israeli Amendment to the Communication Law (Telecommunications and Broadcasting), 1982

  On May 27, 2008, the Knesset passed an amendment to the Communications Law (Telecommunications and Broadcasting), 1982 (the "Amendment"), which deals with prevention of spamming and unsolicited content ("SPAM"). The Amendment will become effective as of December 1st, 2008. The main goal of the Amendment is to provide tools for minimizing the public's exposure to SPAM. However, in practice, as we shall further explore, the Amendment is broadly drafted and can de facto extend to many other possible communications and correspondences between a commercial entity and the public (whether specific or non specific).
  - Gross, Kleinhendler, Hodak, Halevy, Greenberg &

• Tax Law: The Pi-Glilot Case – Allowing Tax Deduction in connection with Dividend Distribution

  In October 2008, the Israeli Supreme Court issued a precedent setting decision in the case re Pi-Glilot Oil Terminals and Pipes Ltd. (the Pi-Glilot case). The Court decided that, under the certain circumstances of this case, financial expenses due to a loan for the purpose of dividend distribution will be eligible for deduction.
  - Gross, Kleinhendler, Hodak, Halevy, Greenberg &

• Ground Breaking Amendments to Israeli Mutual Funds

  On 31st December, 2007, groundbreaking new regulations reforming the mutual funds market came into force. A series of amendments have been made to the Joint Investment Trust Regulations. The purpose of the amendments is to relax the various restrictions applying to mutual funds, and in doing so, to broaden the investment possibilities of mutual funds. One major example is permitting a "special fund" to invest in hedge funds. A further notable change is legislating new regulations regarding the classification of mutual funds for the purpose of publication. These regulation regulate the publication of information relating to units in mutual funds, including redemption price and yield thereof, which aim to improve the quality of information provided to the investing public. The publications will also include classification of the mutual funds into classes and subclasses, ranked in accordance with the type and maximum risk relating thereto. An additional goal of this amendment is to create a better basis for comparing the various available mutual funds.
  - Gross, Kleinhendler, Hodak, Halevy, Greenberg &

• Selling Foreign Mutual Funds in Israel

  The Joint Investment Trust Law, which is also known as the "Mutual Funds Law", regulates the activity of mutual funds in Israel and their offerings to the public. Currently, foreign mutual funds may not be offered directly to Israeli investors. This is due to the difficulty that foreign mutual funds offering their units to Israeli investors would face in complying with all the Israeli regulatory requirements.
  - Gross, Kleinhendler, Hodak, Halevy, Greenberg &

• The New Israeli Copyright Law – Renovation of Israeli Copyright Laws

  On November 19th, 2007, the Israeli Knesset passed a new Copyright Law, 5768 - 2007 (the "New Law"), repealing the Copyright Law, 1911 (as amended) and the Copyright Ordinance, 1924 (together the "Old Laws"), although they remain in effect until the New Law comes into force in May 2008. The New Law reinforces existing rights and provides new rights and protections to reflect new major technological and legal developments over the past 100 years.
  - Gross, Kleinhendler, Hodak, Halevy, Greenberg &

• How To Increase Your Chances Of Ensuring That Non Compete Clauses Will Be Enforced

  An employee?s undertaking not to work for a competing company after termination of his or her employment is a common limitation in employment contracts of many employees in Israel. Due to increasing competition between companies, especially in the hi-tech industry, employers use various tactics to reduce the flow of employees and knowledge to competing companies. For many years, the trend in labor courts in Israel was to enforce non-compete clauses incorporated into employees? contracts so long as the restriction was reasonable in terms of the time limit, geographical area and the expertise of the employee. However, in recent years, the labor courts, in a number of dramatic decisions, reduced significantly the possibility of restricting employees from competing with former employers. Below are the main principles of the new trends, the problems resulting there from and practical recommendations to increase the chances of enforcing non compete clauses today.
  - A&L Goodbody