Israel

Regularly on the ground in Israel and trusted by leading Israeli law firms to counsel their clients, Wiggin and Dana’s experienced Israel team assists Israeli companies, investors, and high net worth individuals to navigate complex areas of U.S. law, protect existing U.S. assets and interests, expand U.S. operations, and resolve U.S.-based disputes.

Clients of our Israel practice range from start-ups to state-owned companies and some of the largest publicly-traded companies in Israel. They operate in sectors including defense, aerospace, software, electronics, legal services, medical devices, banks and financial services, as well as private investment and family offices.

Representative areas of assistance include:

• Helping Israeli companies with U.S. subsidiaries navigate U.S. foreign investment controls and requirements for submissions to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
• Advising on U.S. rules restricting accepting proposed investments from or entering into contracts with parties subject to U.S. export bans or financial sanctions, and creating compliance policies and procedures.
• Representing companies, individuals and law firms in connection with investigations and/or enforcement actions by U.S. government agencies.
• Performing M&A diligence for U.S. acquisitions.
• Advising on U.S. export controls (ITAR, EAR), performing export classification, obtaining export licenses, and advising on application of the U.S.-Israel Free Trade Agreement.
• Evaluating, negotiating, and completing real estate transactions, such as a multi-million-dollar lease for the U.S. offices of a major Israel-based financial institution.
• Obtaining U.S. intellectual property protection including trademark, copyrights, and patents (utility and design) for computer systems, data storage, software, medical devices, animal science, optics, robotics, semiconductors, and pharmaceuticals.
• Advising on the formation and structuring of U.S. and offshore private investment funds (both liquid and illiquid) and their managing entities.
• Providing practical U.S. regulatory advice to private funds and other entities that seek to raise capital and sell securities in the U.S. market.
• Advising clients in connection with cross-border estate planning and related trusts and estate issues, will contests, as well as other disputes concerning the control, management and ownership of family wealth located in the U.S., Israel and other countries.
• Counseling clients concerning, and litigating over, a broad range of personal and business disputes, including international arbitrations involving claims for breach of contract and breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing.

As part of a full-service law firm, our Israel practice can also draw on a full complement of interdisciplinary legal services, including:

• Enterprise formation and governance
• Venture capital and seed financing
• Public offerings
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Tax structuring
• Debt financings
• Intellectual property prosecution, strategy, and litigation
• Licensing and distribution
• Collaborations and other strategic alliances
• Real estate matters and estate planning
• Foreign Investment Controls (CFIUS)
• Employment, labor, benefits, and immigration matters
• Regulatory matters, including trade sanctions, export controls, anti-bribery and corruption, cybersecurity and privacy, anti-trust, and environmental laws
• Commercial litigation and criminal defense