Sinay Elias & Co., Law Office

Sinay Elias & Co., Law Office (SE) is one of Israel’s leading and most successful boutique firms in the field of complex commercial litigation, class and derivative actions and insolvency. The firm was established in 2004 by Adv. Sinay Elias, one of Israel’s leading litigators. During its 19 years of operations, the firm has made impressive legal achievements in complex and highly publicized cases, while gaining extensive reputation in the Israeli legal profession (both lawyers and judges) as a leading firm from the professional aspects, in its high legal proficiency, in its commercial economic understanding of conflicts and in its ability to reach optimal results. The professional knowledge and the valuable legal and commercial experience that has been accumulated in the firm over the years turned SE into a unique and prominent firm which led to precedential verdicts and trailblazing rulings in its practice areas. The firm demonstrates concise, original and creative thinking which is focused on meeting its clients’ business goals, while the firm’s size and the efficient work methods it implemented over the years enable it to manage cases optimally.

Main Practice Areas

The firm provides its clients with comprehensive professional support in the full range of commercial economic litigation fields, including the following: Complex and extensive commercial litigation cases, D&O liability, international litigation including mediations and arbitrations in Israel and abroad, shareholders disputes, partners disputes and dissolutions of business partnerships, commercial law and companies law, management of business crises, insolvency, representation of bondholders in debt restructurings, commercial class actions and in particular in class and derivative actions in securities. The firm has a unique specialization in dispute management and representation in complex cross-border disputes which are managed in separate jurisdictions across the world. The vast experience that was accumulated by the firm’s team in this practice area is unparalleled and enables the clients to move safely also in the international arena. The firm’s high professional level, and the quality of the service it provides to its clients, are guaranteed also through the meticulous attention to the quality of its team of lawyers. The firm’s lawyers are some of the most professional and proficient in their practice area, and have a vast economic understanding.

The Guideline – Achieving the Clients’ Business Goals through Proactive Litigation

SE’s main goal is the fulfillment the clients’ business goals and business interests through litigation, while minimizing the impact on the clients’ ongoing operations. The firm sees great importance in standing behind and committing to its clients’ goals and allocates every available resource for this purpose. The firm’s line of action is proactive litigation and the initiation of legal and other moves that would decide the case’s outcome in favor of the client as soon as possible (occasionally even without resorting to court proceedings). The representation by the firm includes the construction of a strategy in cooperation with the client  in accordance with the goals it presents and the selection of the appropriate line of action and proceedings for achieving said goals. Many of the commercial disputes  managed by the firm were successfully settled through mediations, both in Israel and abroad, without ever reaching the courts. In other disputes, which required length litigation proceedings, the firm worked to achieve optimal results for its clients while precisely  managing the proceedings to match the clients’ commercial interests and goals.

A Battery of First Class External Professionals and Experts

The firm maintains close cooperation with a variety of leading professionals and experts in its practice areas, including leading economists ( in particular experts on securities and antitrust), valuation analysts, investigative accountants, foreign law experts, tax experts, private investigators and appraisers. In addition, the firm regularly works with leading law firms abroad in order to represent in multi jurisdiction litigation. The longstanding cooperation with these first class actions provides a significant benefit to the firm’s clients and proves itself time and time again through quality, professionalism and decisive contribution to the clients’ goals’ achievement, even in extremely complex and unique cases.

Notable Cases

Some of the cases that were handled by the firm’s head over the years include, inter alia, the management of monetary claims amounting to NIS tens of millions following the La Nacional fraud affair; the dissolution of the partnership of the leading law firm S. Biran; Far-reaching international enforcement and collection proceedings amounting to NIS tens of millions against directors in the framework of the North America Bank liquidation; class actions against the fuel companies Paz and Delek where the latter paid aggregated damages of more than NIS 85 million; Class and derivative securities related lawsuits in a cumulative sum of NIS hundreds of millions; representation in control struggles within companies and partners disputes in leading firms; representation of bondholders in public companies; and facilitation of many other legal proceedings at the heart of Israel’s public attention.

Adv. Sinay Elias, Founder and Head of SE

The firm is headed by its founding and managing partner, Adv. Sinay Elias, one of Israel’s top litigators who has over 25 years of experience in the firm’s practice areas. The dedication and professionalism of the firm’s team, alongside the personal involvement of Adv. Elias in every case, particularly in the construction of legal strategy and line of action, enables optimal results for the clients. Adv. Sinay Elias has vast experience and extensive knowledge in legal economic fields and especially in the commercial and capital markets aspects. He provides clients with creative solutions for reaching their goals and solving their current conflicts. He started his professional career in the Dr. Y. Segev&Co. law firm, where he also served as a managing partner and accumulated vast experience in managing some of Israel’s largest commercial cases. In 2004, he embarked on an independent journey and founded the firm under his name. Ever since, with the help of his team of professionals, he has been leading clients to impressive successes in complex and highly publicized disputes, where precedential and trailblazing rulings were often given and new rules were set by the Supreme Court. Adv. Elias has been a member of the Israel Bar Association since 1998, and by education he has an LL.M. (specialization in commercial law) from Tel Aviv University and an LL.B. (cum laude) from the College of Management. Beyond managing his firm, he serves as a member of several IBA committees – the Receiverships and Insolvency, Class and Derivative Actions and Courts - Forum Committees.