AYR - Amar Reiter Jeanne Shochatovitch & Co.

Firm Details:

Head of the Firm: Amir Amar

Managing Partner: Ram Jeanne

Number of Partners: 54

Number of Lawyers: 130

Number of Employees: 181

Languages: English, Hebrew, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, French, Dutch, German

Offices' location: Bnei Brak, Israel (Tel Aviv County); Jerusalem, Israel

Firm Overview:

AYR was formed with the clear objective of developing big firm legal services without big firm attitude. AYR’s founding principles have served the firm well, and it remains committed to them as it continued to grow to become a top-20 firm with the fastest organic growth rate. The firm is ranked as a leading law firm in all major local and international directories, including Chambers and Partners, The Legal 500, IFLR1000, GDR100, Dun’s 100 and BDi Code. Several firm lawyers are dual-qualified in Israel and the US or England and Wales, enabling the firm to conduct business in English and across legal systems with ease and proficiency. Clients include international and domestic companies in technology, telecommunications, real-estate, retail, media, transportation, high-tech and venture capital, finance and insurance, many of which are leaders of their respective fields. The firm’s clients are entrepreneurial and sophisticated, and it builds its practice with excellence, drive, creativity, resourcefulness, flexibility, diversity and informality to best serve their needs, match their energy, and keep them as clients over the long term. It achieves this by being that rare thing: lawyers who enjoy their work.

Main Areas of Practice:

Litigation& Dispute Resolution (Local & International):

The litigation department represents its clients in complex litigation and arbitration, mediation and administrative proceedings. The litigation team are the leaders in Israel and has demonstrated legal creativity in the strategy management of each case leading to the achievement of the desired results for its clients. The team has vast experience in complex disputes, including shareholder disputes and derivative law suits, contractual and real estate disputes, and administrative petitions, including to the High Court of Justice. The firm’s international litigation team has considerable experience in representing foreign clients before the various courts in Israel and in coordinating their litigation activities in multijurisdictional disputes.

Class Actions:

The class action department is placed at the top of professional rankings in Israel and abroad. Quite uniquely, the practice undertakes only class-action defense cases, giving the team an unusually extensive experience in this field. Clients are naturally high-profile domestic and international corporations. In the last few years, the team has led the defense of some of the largest class action proceedings in Israel, and has taken a significant part in the establishment of precedential rulings.

Real Estate:

The real estate department has established itself as one of the most significant in Israel, representing leading companies in the Israeli market. The real estate department deals with some of the largest and most complex transactions in Israel, including residential projects of thousands of housing units, large commercial projects and complex project financing transactions. Team lawyers have thorough knowledge of the law and practice of real-estate transactions. Lawyers handle all aspects of transactions, including financing, taxation, and registration at local and national governmental levels.

Corporate Law:

The corporate law department of the firm represents a wide range of clients, including domestic and international companies, private and public corporations, and entrepreneurs, in all aspects of their ongoing business and commercial activities, including in matters of corporate governance, corporate law, company formation, tenders and other procurement procedures, multinational transactions such as share purchase and asset purchase agreements, distribution and franchise agreements, international commerce, various services agreements, licensing and JV agreements and many more.

Banking & Finance:

The firm’s finance team represents both borrowers and lenders in project finance transactions and corporate financing transactions, mainly in real estate, infrastructure and transportation worlds, in hundreds of millions, and even billions of NIS.

Hi-Tech, Technological Incubators, Start-Ups, Accelerators & Venture Capital:

The Hi-Tech team has vast experience and thorough knowledge in the structuring and handling of complex hi-tech transactions. The team represents Israeli and international clients, including early stage technology companies, institutional and private investors, and startup incubators and accelerators active in communications, media, mobility, cyber security and bio-tech. The team advises clients throughout all stages of development, from the early phases of inception, through the establishment and protection of intellectual property rights, investment rounds (starting from the ‘seed’ investment), the ongoing operation of the business and the various engagements with customers, suppliers, agents, service providers etc., until the final sale or IPO of the company.

Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A):

The firm’s M&A team has extensive experience and consults a wide range of buyers and sellers in local and international M&A transactions. The team’s synergetic activity provides a comprehensive professional response to the various aspects of the transaction, including in the fields of restrictive trade practice and taxation and according to the needs of the customer. The team does so while learning the customer’s business and the commercial interest to be protected.

Capital Markets & Securities:

The team provides legal guidance to issuing companies, underwriters and investors, both in Israel and abroad, regarding all aspects of the securities law and corporate law, and in a wide range of transactions. The team provides a full service in connection with issuances of debt and equity securities, in Israel and abroad.

Privacy, Processing & Cyber Security:

The firm’s privacy, data security and cyber team is one of Israel’s strongest and most active, advising on Israeli and EU privacy laws including on such matters as crossborder data transfers, cloud computing, use of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in the telecoms, media, insurance, financial, transportation and other industries, data ethics, and general and sectoral data security and cyber defense compliance requirements. Technical understanding and many years of working with clients in the technology sector and in highly-regulated industries, and their service providers, underpins the work of the practice, which has a strong working relationship with the various regulators.

Telecom, Media & Technology:

The communications practice serves a remarkable roster of telecoms and media clients. The wide range of media and telecoms clients gives the practice an edge in negotiating royalty agreements and an in-depth knowledge of regulatory and commercial matters, including production, transmission and licensing agreements. The firm advises on such complex matters as ISP liability for content piracy, filtering and classification of content, libel and freedom of expression, network neutrality, compliance with environmental radiation standards, infrastructure sharing, VoIP, privacy and data security, and lawful intercept.

Intellectual Property:

The firm’s IP expertise is backed by a solid technological understanding, which underpins the IP services which the firm provides to clients such as large software multinationals, telecommunications operators, television and radio broadcasters, new media providers, start-ups, and retail giants. The practice relies on substantial competition law experience to counsel clients on the antitrust implications of various provisions in copyright, trademark, trade secret and know-how licensing arrangements. The team also has unique collective rights licensing expertise.

Insolvency & Corporate Restructuring:

The insolvency team has many years of experience and indepth knowledge of the treatment of corporations in financial distress, both in scenarios of recovery of companies and in liquidation and receivership scenarios. The firm’s services in this field include, among other things, the management of corporations in a procedure freezing, liquidation and receivership, formulation of recovery plans and creditor arrangements, representation of creditors and officers and representation of investors in insolvency proceedings and realisation of assets of companies in distress.

Labour Law & Employment:

The labour law team specialises in representing local and international employers in the private and public sectors, including educational institutions, high-tech companies, communications companies, industrial companies and workers committees in all fields of labour law — private and collective. The attorneys in the department have extensive experience in managing complex crises and disputes in the field of labour law, including collective disputes and initial organisations.

Infrastructures:

The team holds knowledge and expertise in providing legal support for both systems and civil engineering contractors during the stages of planning, construction, installation, testing and commissioning, as well as in preparing in advance the strategies and foundation for future disputes. The team specialises in represent in governmental tenders, contracts, international taxation, local litigation and arbitration — as well as international — corporate and competition law — with adjustment to Infrastructures.

Transportation:

The team represents and regularly provides legal advice and consultation regarding regulation, antitrust issues, defence of class actions, litigation, tenders of large scope, large scale and complex finance agreements and a range of commercial issues.

International Work:

• Leading Law Firm: As one of Israel’s top law firms, AYR is a leading expert in the international law arena with years of extensive and valuable experience, providing legal services to local and foreign businessmen, senior officials, public and private corporations, global entities, investment funds, start-ups, hi-tech and industrial companies, etc.
• One Stop Shop: AYR’s international practice includes the firm’s Mergers & Acquisition team, the Commercial and Corporate team, the High-Tech team and Law & Technology team. The teams work closely together as well as with supplementary teams (Real Estate, Labour Law, Litigation, Insolvency, White Collar etc.) to provide the firm’s foreign clients with a ‘one-stop-shop’ in Israel for all of their legal needs.
• Cross-Border Transactions: AYR’s international teams are constantly at the forefront of cross-border M&A transactions, global financial investments and international public offerings. AYR’s goal is to provide its foreign clients with the optimal local solutions which meet their needs from day one and assist them in successfully completing innovative and complex transactions in Israel and abroad. This often requires ‘out of the box’ solutions, creative thinking and familiarity with local and foreign laws and partners.
• Global Clients: As a result, AYR’s regular client base includes global corporations as well as local and foreign companies, partnerships, startups, investors, etc. This diverse client base allows AYR to match possible partners and to assist in fostering some of the most creative business collaborations, beyond what is locally available. The firm's clientele engages in various fields, including high-tech, traditional industry, e-commerce, transportation, communication, banking, retail, finance, real-estate, IT, and defense industries.
• International Team: AYR’s international abilities are rooted in the reputable and global experience and background of its lawyers. Many of the firm's partners and associates have international legal experience by practicing abroad (including in London, New York and South America) and many speak multiple languages such as English, French, Russian, Portuguese and Spanish, enhancing AYR’s ability to engage foreign clients with interest in Israeli businesses.
• Cultural Understanding: Understanding the importance and specific nuances of different business cultures, the managing partners in AYR’s international teams work closely and personally with executives of foreign clients, and familiarize themself with the ins-and-outs of the specific business needs of each client and the environment in which it operates.
• International Partners:

AYR firm is a member of Lawyers Associated Worldwide (L.A.W), a global association of independent commercial law firms (Formed in 1989), with approximately 100 member firms located in over 50 countries, 187 commercial jurisdictions, representing a global resource of more than 4,500 individual lawyers.

Members adhere to a single standard of excellence, while sharing local expertise. Wherever life and business take the firm's clients, LAW ensures responsive, accessible, accountable legal representation.

The firm is also a member of LEGALINK an international legal network of more than 80 independent business-oriented law firms with members from the majority of the main commercial centers across the world.

LEGALINK operates internationally but locally provides top quality multi-jurisdictional legal services. Through LEGALINK’s networks, AYR is able to assist its local and international clients to connect and access the best legal services worldwide.

• Offices:
• AYR’s offices are located in Bnei Brak and Jerusalem, placing the offices at the geographical, cultural and business centers of Israel, providing clients with full accessibility and maximum convenience.