Yigal Arnon & Co > Firm Profile

The firm: Yigal Arnon & Co is one of Israel’s leading law firms with offices in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. For more than 60 years the firm has provided a full range of legal services to companies of all sizes, investors, entrepreneurs and individuals. With its focused practice groups, the firm has combined the expertise of a speciality boutique practice with the advantages of a well resourced multidisciplinary law firm. In addition to its established practice groups in corporate, mergers and acquisitions, litigation (civil and criminal), real estate, banking and finance, the firm has one of the most developed technology practices in Israel, representing some of the largest technology companies (and their venture capital and other investors) in Israel
and abroad.

Many lawyers at the firm have years of experience working at leading law firms in the United States, Canada and England, enabling the firm to cooperate seamlessly with overseas businesses and their lawyers. Yigal Arnon & Co is committed to providing superior services to its clients. The firm takes pride in the quality of its lawyers — from senior partners to junior associates — and in staffing each matter with lawyers who can assist the client in resolving complex and challenging legal problems, and achieving the client’s business goals.

Areas of practice
Corporate and M&A: Yigal Arnon & Co has an outstanding M&A practice that has been involved in some of the largest and most significant M&A transactions in Israel over recent years. These transactions include the acquisition of Israeli companies by some of the world’s leading global companies, where the firm ran the entire transaction on behalf of the global client.

High-tech and venture capital: Yigal Arnon & Co is a leader in this field, representing many leading Israeli venture capital funds and numerous US and European funds, as well as a whole gamut of hi-tech and life science start-up companies in varying stages of development, from inception through public flotation and beyond.

Life sciences: The firm has developed a specialised life sciences practice to provide customised and professional services to both emerging and more established companies that are transforming life science industries. The firm works with companies from a broad crosssection of the industry, including biotechnology, pharmaceutical, bio-informatics, medical device and healthcare service companies.

Intellectual property: Yigal Arnon & Co’s intellectual property and corporate partnering practice has extensive experience in assisting Israeli and foreign businesses at all stages of development, in protecting and commercialising their intellectual property and proprietary technology.

Tax: Yigal Arnon & Co has developed a widely recognised tax practice representing a wide range of clients from individuals to multinational and international corporations. Its extensive expertise covers corporate and real estate taxation, international tax treaty implementation but also specialist areas such as trust taxation, financial instruments, transfer pricing for international groups, technology transfer, mergers and acquisitions, venture capital fund formation and employee stock option plans.

Capital markets and securities: Yigal Arnon & Co is a recognised leader in securities law. While it has a strong record in assisting clients in listings on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, the firm has also participated in more than 100 public offerings of equity or debt securities in the US and Europe on behalf of the issuer, underwriter or key selling shareholders. The assistance to these clients extends far beyond the public offering to encompass ongoing guidance on compliance.

Banking and finance: Yigal Arnon & Co represents Israeli, US and European banks and financial institutions in all manner of services, including the provision of legal opinions to foreign counsel. The firm has been engaged in some of the most complex banking and financial services transactions over recent years and has expertise in complex financial instruments, including derivatives.

Projects, infrastructure and energy: Yigal Arnon & Co. has represented major international consortia tendering for banks, as well as national infrastructure and complex project finance undertakings based on BOT, BOO and other project finance techniques. The firm also often represents the government in major transportation and other tenders.

Real estate and construction: Yigal Arnon & Co represents some of the leading real estate companies in Israel and abroad and is involved in a large number of major property development projects (both commercial and residential) and acquisitions in Israel, Eastern Europe and India.

Dispute resolution: Yigal Arnon & Co represents domestic and international clients in a wide range of cases, including arbitration, commercial litigation and high-profile civil and criminal matters and has an active appeals practice before the Supreme Court. The firm’s litigation group is one of Israel’s leading litigation departments and it has a particularly strong class action defence practice.

Antitrust and competition: Yigal Arnon & Co. provides antitrust counseling together, when needed with litigation services, in connection with monopolies, strategic alliances, exclusive commercial relationships and other competition law matters, and has a proven track record in obtaining merger approvals for
global, as well as local, M&A transactions.

Telecoms, media and internet: Yigal Arnon & Co. represents a wide range of clients, including fixed line telecommunications companies,
television companies, internet service and content providers, telecoms equipment manufacturers and internet telephony companies. The firm has frequent dealings with the Ministry of Communications and assists in securing
broadcast licenses, establishing program distribution, determining rate regulations and preparing fixed line and wireless access permit applications.

Labour and employee benefits:  Yigal Arnon & Co. advises companies at all stages, from emerging growth companies to established international
companies, assisting them in arranging and implementing employment packages appropriate for their needs. The firm is involved in all facets of setting up and implementing employee incentive plans, including equity and equitybased award plans. Its attorneys are instrumental in integrating Israeli and foreign corporate, securities, tax and accounting concerns in order to structure multinational benefit plans, often in close co-operation with leading
international firms.

Clients: Yigal Arnon & Co. provides a full range of legal services to
a wide ranging client base, including major international (Fortune 500) and other global companies, local and foreign banks, financial institutions, venture capital and private equity funds, emerging growth companies, investor
groups, government entities, and individuals. The firm represents clients in a wide variety of industries, including information technology, energy, banking, software, electronics, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, internet, medical devices, real estate, telecommunications, Fintech, insurance, automotive and consumer products.

Press Releases

Yigal Arnon & Co. represented Intel Capital in its investment in Habana Labs

21st November 2018

Advs. Barak Platt, Nataly Damary, Josh Hauser and the intern Idan Adar represented Intel Capital, the technology giant's investment arm, in their investment in Habana Labs, a leading startup in the emerging AI processor space, in a US$75 million in an oversubscribed series B funding. The round is joined by WRV Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Battery Ventures and others, including existing investors.

Click here for more information.

Your Thoughts: Crypto Confidence

19th April 2018

Adv. Adrian Daniels, partner at Yigal Arnon & Co. and Co-head of the Fintech practice, shares his thoughts on Cryptocurrency in this Finance Monthly article.

 finance_monthly_-_your_thoughts_-_crypto_confidence_03.04.2018

Legal Developments

INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR HNWIs IN ISRAEL’S HI-TECH ECOSYSTEM

23rd May 2019 Accredited investor funding platforms for innovative tech scale-ups offer more choice and without having to commit a large chunk of capital upfront, the risk is diluted.

Perhaps the QuadragaCX Story Will Have a Happy Ending

12th March 2019

While there are the aficionados who will say that cryptocurrencies will free us of the chains of the global financial institutions, on the occasions when the world of cryptocurrencies intersects with the world in which most of us live, the news is generally bleak. While you may not know one side of a Bitcoin from the other, you probably know that its value has crashed over the last 13 months, you may even have heard about some of some of the larger cryptohacks (that is computer heists through which digital currencies belonging to investors are stolen from crypto trading exchanges). And over the last week or so, you may have read on mainstream news sites about the death of Gerald Cotton the CEO of Canada’s largest cryptoexchange QuadragaCX. The death of the CEO of a company that few had previously heard of, was news of course, because in his passing he had taken the passwords to the accounts of his customers with him. The result of this being that about $140 million of their money was stuck somewhere between this world and the celestial ether in which Mr. Cotton now resides. Of course, it wasn’t quite told like that. We were fed terms such as “private keys,” lack of “multi-signature protection,” “cold storage wallets” and more readily understandable – “cryptofraud”. Again!

Israel Chapter in The Virtual Currency Regulation Review

10th December 2018

Earlier this year, the Israel Tax Authority (ITA) issued two circulars, one on the taxation of digital tokens and the second addressing the taxation of utility tokens in initial coin offerings (ICOs). Additionally, in March, the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) released a detailed interim report by the Committee for the Regulation of Public Offerings of Decentralized Cryptocurrency Coins (Report) (with a follow-up report due to come out around October 2018). Moreover, it is expected that before the end of 2018, legislation will come into force that for the first time will see Israeli primary legislation define virtual currencies as financial assets and mandate licensing for related services, as is later discussed in detail.

This chapter addresses the applicability of the existing legal framework in Israel to the use and trade of virtual currencies. It further reviews the significant efforts already made by the Israeli regulators to create new, or to adjust existing, legislation and regulations with regard to virtual currencies in an attempt to keep pace with the bustling global virtual currency market, and especially the booming Israeli one (an estimated US$500 million was raised in Israeli-linked ICOs alone in 2017).

  

 israel_chapter_in_the_virtual_currency_regulation_review

Spring is coming for real estate registration in Israel

10th December 2018

Israel may be the “Start-up Nation” and a world-renowned center of technological innovation, yet for many years the procedures and conduct of the Israeli Land Registry have been trapped in the past.

 Spring is coming for real estate registration in Israel

Platforms For High Net Worth Investors In Israeli High-tech

27th November 2018

Israeli hi-tech and its sources of funding have grown and diversified tremendously since the bubble burst in 2001 and over the last decade since the height of the financial crisis in 2007-2008.

http://www.arnon.co.il/sites/default/files/DIY%20Investor%20November%20%202018.pdf

 

Nondiscrimination In 5g Standards

26th November 2018

Nondiscrimination has been the neglected stepchild of the FRAND commitment. Patent owners participating in standards organizations typically commit to license their technology on “fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory (“FRAND”) terms.”

1. While a number of cases have provided extensive consideration of the first “fair and reasonable” part of FRAND, until recently, U.S. decisions provided only meager analysis of the second “non-discrimination” prong.
2. The recent TCL decision3 in the United States and the Unwired Planet decision
3. in the United Kingdom provide significant new guidance concerning the FRAND nondiscrimination requirement. Unfortunately, advancing 5G technology will bring new difficulties in applying that requirement, and neither decision will assist in addressing these coming complexities.

 nondiscrimination_in_5g_standards

Crash Course on Non-Disclosure Agreements

26th November 2018

Non-disclosure agreements are a crucial, but often overlooked, tool in allowing startup companies to grow, build strategic partnerships and explore new business relationships necessary to develop their product or bring it to market. These agreements are often short (sometimes only a page or two) and lead many founders to forego legal advice to get past this "formality" and begin working with the other party to the NDA. Yet, NDAs are important agreements with potentially far-reaching implications for the protection of a company's confidential information and intellectual property, and mishandling of NDAs can come back to haunt a startup years later.

 crash_course_on_non-disclosure_agreements

Advocates Eli Greenbaum and Ezra Gross of Yigal Arnon & Co. in The Lawyer Special Report editorial

13th June 2018

An interview-style piece in The Lawyer, Law in Israel: moving beyond tech, quoting Eli Greenbaum and Ezra Gross:

https://www.thelawyer.com/law-in-israel/?nocache=true&adfesuccess=1

Publication of Adv. Adrian Daniel’s Commentary in Private Banker International on GDPR & Blockchain

13th June 2018

Publication of Adv. Adrian Daniel's Commentary in Private Banker International on GDPR & Blockchain.

A link to the article can be found a href="https://www.verdict.co.uk/private-banker-international/?s=yigal"here

Article in MEA Markets on GDPR & Israeli Law

13th June 2018

GDPR & ISRAELI PRIVACY LAW - KEY DIFFERENCES Yoheved Novogroder-Shoshan & Miriam Friedmann of Yigal Arnon & Co. outline the key differences between GDPR & Israeli Privacy Law. mea_markets_-_gdpr__israeli_law_-_key_differences_14.05.2018

Clarifications regarding Supervision of Financial Services Law (Regulated Financial Services)

13th June 2018

Authored by Adv. Simon Weintraub, Adv. Shiri Shaham, Adv. Yuval Shalheveth of Israeli law firm, Yigal Arnon & Co.:

 gbfr_-_clarifications_regarding_supervision_of_financial_services_law 

How Israeli Regulators Are Meeting Ico Challenges

13th June 2018

HOW ISRAELI REGULATORS ARE MEETING ICO CHALLENGES

 

A recent report proposes a balanced approach to ICOs that could add new vigourto the country’s vibrant blockchain sector.

A briefing by Adrian Daniels and Dafna Raz in the Israel Report in The Lawyer

 the_lawyer-how-israeli-regulators-are-meeting-ico-challenges 

Technological Innovation In Israel

13th June 2018

The steady evolution of class action suits in Israel

13th June 2018

The steady evolution of class action suits in Israel, by Adv. Ruth Loven. Published in FTSE magazine.

 the_steady_evolution_of_class_action_suits_in_israel 

Comparative Guides

• Israel: Energy: Oil & Gas

  Published: December 2019

  Authors: Simon Weintraub Avi Anouchi

  This country-specific Q&A provides an overview to Energy laws and regulations that may occur in Israel.