Gornitzky & Co. Advocates

Founded in 1938, Gornitzky & Co. has been involved in many of the largest and most complex transactions in the Israeli market and plays a key role in the development of Israel’s economy and legal practice.

The unique, multi-disciplinary approach that characterizes Gornitzky allows the firm to provide its domestic and international clients with fully integrated legal services, providing a legal ‘premium one-stop-shop’ for all of their business needs. The firm and its partners are consistently recognized and recommended by leading legal directories, such as Chambers Global, The Legal 500, IFLR 1000, BdiCode, Dun’s 100, and others.

The firm’s clientele includes a significant number of Israel’s leading business groups, multinational corporations operating in Israel and various governmental entities.

The firm’s lawyers speak Hebrew and English, as well as Afrikaans, Arabic, Farsi, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Some of the firm’s lawyers are licensed to practice law in other jurisdictions, while others are certified public accountants or have additional academic degrees. The firm’s chairman, Pinhas Rubin, considered Israel’s leading tax law expert and one of the country’s most prominent commercial lawyers, has been repeatedly named one of the ‘100 Most Influential People’ in the Israeli economy by ‘The Marker’ magazine; In 2017, Kfir Yadgar and Lior Porat became Managing Partners of the firm.

Connecting with the community and giving back through social involvement and environmental responsibility are integral to Gornitzky’s value system and organizational culture. As a firm, we provide pro bono legal counsel to a long list of non-profit organizations.

Fields of Practice (partial list):

Commercial and Corporate Law – providing legal counsel to Israeli and international corporations and public entities in all types of commercial contracts, including outsourcing agreements, service contracts, and development, production, marketing, distribution and franchising agreements, corporate governance issues, enforcement and compliance, and more.

M&A – representing Israeli and foreign buyers, sellers and target companies in large and complex M&A transactions, including the sale of banks, insurance companies, large energy and communications corporations, holding companies and more; providing legal counsel to the world’s largest corporations and private equity funds, as well as to leading international law firms, in their Israeli acquisitions and transactions; representing Israeli corporations in their cross-border acquisitions in the US, Europe and the Far East.

Tax – representing clients in intricate global tax cases, creative tax planning, writing complex opinions; representing individuals and corporations before various judicial bodies in Israel, including the Supreme Court and the Israel Tax Authority.

Capital Markets – providing legal services to Israel’s largest and most active business groups; handling offerings and private placements on capital markets in Israel and abroad, reaching billions of shekels annually; advising Israeli companies with offerings on foreign exchanges, foreign companies with offerings on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and leading underwriters in offerings in Israel and abroad.

Banking and Finance – representing lenders and borrowers in the largest financing transactions in the Israeli market, including some of Israel’s largest commercial banks, insurance companies, provident funds and other institutional lenders, as well as foreign financial institutions operating in Israel.

Real-Estate – representing clients in real-estate transactions both in Israel and abroad, and taking part in many of Israel’s largest and most complex real-estate projects.

Litigation – representing companies, corporations and individuals in intricate commercial disputes spreading over many countries and judicial bodies, including the Supreme Court, the High Court of Justice and international arbitration tribunals; representing clients in class actions and derivative suits of substantial financial scopes in the fields of insurance, restrictive trade practices, banking, consumerism, environment and corporate law, and more.

Infrastructure and Project Finance – representing clients in a majority of the high-profile infrastructure transactions in Israel and in their financing; providing legal services for the construction of all the major desalination plants in Israel, the National Training Center project of the Israel Police, the construction of training facilities for the IDF, the Carmel Tunnel project, Highway 6 and many others. The firm also has extensive experience in privatizations, tenders, and BOT and PFI projects.

Energy – providing legal services to leading Israeli and foreign energy corporations in major energy and natural resource transactions that transpire in Israel, including the natural resources market, natural gas, oil, refineries, private power stations, electricity, solar energy, water desalination, BOT transactions, and more.

Telecoms – specializing in the various facets of the communications sector, including infrastructure, content, technology and regulation. Clientele includes Israel’s largest communications corporations in the fields of wired and cellular telephony, internet and television, as well as start-ups in the telecommunications and satellite broadcast industries.

Technology – representing clients such as start-up, hi-tech and biotechnology companies and their investors in M&A transactions in these fields. Clientele includes large venture capital funds and hi-tech, biotechnology and communications companies.

Fintech - providing ongoing legal advice to Fintech, InsurTech and RegTech companies; overseeing the commercial aspects of each transaction or offering executed by the company; representing Fintech companies, starting with the initial process of seed funding and ending with M&A transactions.

Hotels, Travel & Leisure – providing ongoing legal services to Israel’s largest hotel management chain, foreign-based hotel groups, hotel franchises, management companies and hotel property owners, in relation to licensing, franchise agreements, property law, financing, safety, commercial and contractual consulting.