May Edition 2020

8 restructuring of debts as well as boards of debtors regarding mitigation of directors’ personal liability risks, while our M&A department advised buyers who continued with existing transactions, subject to necessary adjustments due to crisis and buyers who showed an interest in distressed companies.” As HFN’s Phillips adds: “The main concerns have indeed been HR related - how to deal with employees, the rules about furloughing and unfortunately in some cases dismissal in light of the pandemic. Other departments have also been particularly busy - such as Capital Markets department, which has been advising reporting companies on how to address the Corona crisis in their reports, Tax group, which has been helping clients understand new reporting and filing rules issued by the ITA during the crisis, and the Competition & Antitrust team, which has been fielding questions regarding new rules about cooperation between competitors issued by the Competition Authority to deal with the crisis.” With so many moving parts and multiple disciplines involved, it is fair to say that law firms have seen no other challenge quite like this one. Tadmor added: “From the outset we decided to become COVID-19 law experts. We formed a designated Coronavirus team. They are the experts on everything Corona related and know all there is to know about the new laws and regulations, as well as the application of our existing body of law to this unprecedented situation.” Phillips noted: “We have been following all legislative and regulatory developments extremely closely and we have dedicated Corona teams in all relevant departments whose job it is to stay up to date with all new rules and policies issued by the regulators.” Yigal Arnon’s Weintraub confirmed: “Like many law firms around the world we are providing constant Covid-19 legal updates to our clients as well as to colleagues and contacts. We do our best to provide such information both in Hebrew and in the English language on a timely basis.” COVID-19 Teams