September Edition 2020

37 How are Israeli clients seizing any opportunities and overcoming the many challenges? Waldman at Freshfields st ates: Our “Israel team” is reallyour entire, integrated global firm, so we have been bringing to bear opportunities we are seeing globally and trying to help our clients harness the lessons our global clients and lawyers have been learning across other jurisdictions. Lustman at DLA :W e created in interactive form, awide-ranging overviewof key questions arising in relation to a range of legal and commercial issues by country to enable our clients to understand the key issues raised by COVID-19 across jurisdictions that are relevant to them. Fromshareholder meetings to tax benefits to supply chainmanagement and somuchmore, this resource has been invaluable for clients who need to move quickly and make decisions in real time. With regards to litigatio n, Hiller at Asserson ad ds: Much of our litigation work comes from deals that have not been structured properly, deal documents that have been drafted ambiguously or in less favorable terms than clients anticipated. It is certainly more cost-effective for clients to invest appropriately at the outset and avoid the significant costs of litigation which often arise when client seek to cut corners. As a smaller firmwith offices here, in Israel, we are uniquely positioned as a cultural bridge between Israelis and the Anglo-world, since the majority of our lawyers live in Israel full-time and are Israeli citizens. The approach which our Israeli clients typically want to take for their case could be regarded as overly aggressive by British or US parties. We are uniquely positioned to communicate the tone and style preferred by Israeli clients but to ‘translate’ that into a manner better received by the English courts and legal system and therefore can find a middle-ground which best serves the client’s interests and which also gives a level of familiarity and comfort as in line with their mentality. Gowling’s Fink p oints out: Clients of the firm benefit from up-to-the- minute updates via our newsletters and the firm’s brand new platform, GoXL. We also enjoy a very close relationship with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) with which we have worked on Canada’s membership to the Madrid Protocol. This means that we are often given advance access to changes in rules that may affect our clients and we pass that information on to them as soon as we’re able to. The Madrid Protocol provides trademark owners the possibility of filing a single application for international registration with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and subsequently designating other member countries where protection is sought.