IsraelDesks asks international law firms with either formal or informal Israel practices to submit work matters from the previous calendar year to highlight their involvement in and understanding of the Israeli market.
Deals or Cases
For the matter to meet our criteria, the client must be headquartered in Israel or outside of Israel, as long as the client has Israeli owners. Businesses founded by Israelis more than 5 years ago but today owned by non-Israelis or headquartered in a country outside of Israel will not count.
If the matter is aborted but can be verified as Israel-related, then it can be counted as we are trying to showcase to an international audience the law firms still entrusted with Israeli matters, no matter the outcome. Obviously, aborted matters will not, however, feature in any relevant value table.
With all categories, the more detail provided, the better – even if marked confidential. General or generic advice is unlikely to be included without evidence or verification.
In the deals or cases submitted, the law firm must represent either:
a) The Israeli client or b) Be involved in a deal where one of the main parties is Israeli-headquartered or Israeli-owned.
This information is collected and collated into separate league tables for each of the practice areas or sectors covered. In M&A and Capital Markets, there will be two tables: VOLUME (number of mandates or instructions in these areas) and VALUE (the total amount in USD of transactions submitted) to reflect the range of law firms involved in these areas.
All entries are verified by press releases, news sources, and our own independent research to see if the client is Israeli and if the deals relate to the timeframe.
Timeframe:
Matters relate to the previous full calendar year and can be ongoing or completed.
Practice Areas/Sectors:
The list of practice areas or sectors, alphabetically, includes:
(1) Banking (2) Capital Markets (3) Employment (4) Energy and Infrastructure (5) High-Tech (6) IP: Transactional and Contentious (7) Litigation/Arbitration (8) M&A (9) Patents and Trademarks (10) Private Client and Tax (11) Real Estate.
In Employment, High-Tech and Real Estate, given the range of work for each client, matters will be counted once per client. See below for more details.
This list is subject to feedback and change from lawyers to reflect the market on a yearly basis.
Ranked Individuals:
We review the firms submissions and look at work presented by lawyers while at their current firm. We also send a list of leading individuals to the highest profile lawyers in Israel, asking them to identify those Leading, Prominent, Recognized, and Notable practitioners abroad, who take a proactive, instrumental and hands-on role with respect to Israel. In addition, for IsraelDesks members, we highlight in our editorial those recommended lawyers who have been active on various Israel-related matters throughout the year.
We also have the "Elite" rankings to showcase those who particularly stood out with the largest number of matters and those with the highest value matters in what is becoming a much more competitive and vibrant market.
Editorial and Confidential Information
IsraelDesks members benefit from dedicated supporting editorial alongside their rankings — an exclusive opportunity to present their Israel-related work and credentials to our international readership. Firms wishing to receive editorial coverage are welcome to join IsraelDesks. The new website will bring together editorial, rankings, firm profiles and news in one dynamic platform — giving members a visible, permanent presence for both domestic and international audiences.
Confidential information will be treated as 100% confidential and not discussed externally, shared, or published in any editorial. Only public and publishable information is used in the supporting editorial.
If the matter IS confidential, a short call with the lawyer or email to the client merely to verify that the matter took place would be sufficient for its inclusion.
With data protection and privacy a central pillar of our business, a law firm s submission is stored securely on a private secure internal drive accessible only to management.
Law firms are free to choose which practice areas or sectors to submit content for, and having done so, they enter this content into an Excel spreadsheet template and email the submission to Israel Desks.
Any further questions, please email Lee at lee@nishlis.com
Submit your completed forms by email to Daniel Friedman at daniel@nishlis.com
Practice Areas Researched: Definitions
Capital Markets:
This category covers both debt and equity capital markets for Israeli issuers and is fcused on IPOs, secondary offerings, private placements, bond and note issuances. Coverage is focused on specific, verifiable issuances and transactions, with each IPO, debt, and equity matter counted once. Generic and general capital markets advice is subject to verification. A value table is also generated for this category.
Employment:
This category covers both contentious and non-contentious employment matters for Israeli businesses, including litigation relating to discrimination, redundancies, and the employment aspects of mergers. Matters are counted once by client by jurisdiction rather than by mandate. For example concrete evidence of advice to Israeli client X on a verifiable issue in Romania and advice to the same client on a different issue in Poland would count as two, subject to verification. All generic advice may be subject to verification so we encourage as much detail as possible.
IP: Transactional and Contentious:
Intellectual Property covers disputes related to patent, copyright and trademark infringement. Litigation concerning trade secrets also features. We also feature related issues such as licensing and IP commercialization.
IP: Patents and Trademarks:
These categories include representing Israeli companies filing or prosecuting a patent or a trademark before the relevant authorities. Managing a portfolio for an Israeli client today is also included.
Litigation/Arbitration:
This category includes commercial disputes for Israeli clients. These can be breach of contract, shareholder disputes, disputes relating to M&A and joint ventures, product liability, class actions, etc. They can take place in any forum, including courts outside of Israel, as well as arbitrations for Israeli clients abroad.
Disputes involving employment, IP, real estate, tax, and such will be included in those relevant categories. There is little point putting them in this category.
M&A:
This category covers M&A transactions involving Israeli buyers, sellers, targets, and private equity firms - including public bids, acquisitions, LBOs, MBOs, reverse buyouts, partial takeovers, share transfers, spin-offs, and joint ventures. A value table is also generated for this category.
Private Client and Tax:
In addition to private client work, this combined category also includes transactional matters – such as advice on direct and indirect taxes, tax aspects of M&A transactions, and others, as well as tax disputes, investigations and more.
Sectors researched:
Banking & Finance:
This category covers a broad range of banking transactions for both Israeli borrowers and lenders, financial institutions, investment funds in matters, such as acquisition finance, syndicated lending, structured finance, leveraged finance, refinancing and restructuring of existing loans, debtor-in-possession financing, and regulatory advice.
Financial institutions providing business loans will feature here. Financial institutions acting as investors in high-tech companies will belong in the high-tech category.
Energy & Infrastructure:
This category covers the financing and development of energy and renewable energy projects involving Israeli parties, as well as infrastructure matters including rail and light rail systems, roads, bridge financing, water desalination plants, hospitals, schools, and prisons.
High-Tech:
This category covers transactional matters for Israeli startups and established businesses across the full range of tech sectors, including Biotech, Fintech, Medtech, Cybersecurity, AI, Agtech, Software, and IoT. Transactions encompass M&A, financing, employment, strategic alliances, joint ventures, stock exchange listings, and corporate governance. Matters are counted by client rather than by mandate, and some overlap with other practice area categories is expected.
Real Estate:
This category covers Israeli real estate developers active in projects globally, as well as international developers active in Israel, and Israeli buyers and sellers of real estate abroad. Projects span the following sectors: residential, urban renewal, commercial, office, logistics, data centers, retail, and hotel. Matters are counted by client rather than by mandate, with any real estate litigation strengths reflected in relevant editorial.
