The Tel Aviv office of international law firm Greenberg Traurig handles all aspects of commercial law and is unique on the Israeli law firm landscape. Located in Azrieli Center, GT Israel comprises 17 lawyers. All of them are new or veteran immigrants who began their career in US law firms, with many of them religious Jews who immigrated to Israel to fulfil their Zionist ideals. GT Israel recently merged into it the activities of McDermott Israel, which specializes in the capital market, adding its six lawyers.
All the lawyers at the firm holds licenses to practice abroad and do not deal with Israeli law at all. GT Israel represents international clients in their activities in Israel and support Israeli clients in their activities in the US.
GT is the world's third largest law firmת with more than 2,500 lawyers worldwide. The firm was founded in Miami in 1967 and has expanded throughout the US with 33 offices and 10 more in Europe and Asia.
GT Israel partner Adv. Lawrence Sternthal, who immigrated to Israel from the US, specializes in real estate. He came to Israel to study at Bar-Ilan University, fell in love with the country, and after receiving a J.D. from Boston University School of Law and gaining experience in a US law firm, he immigrated to Israel. Adv. Sternthal represents almost every Israeli institutional investor buying commercial real estate in the US from Migdal and Harel, to Menora Mivtachim Group and Phoenix, and through to Altshuler Shaham and Meitav Dash.
GT has represented: Harel when it bought part of a Broadway office building in Manhattan for $250 million; Clal Insurance and Menora Mivtachim Group, which acquired, together with US real estate company Silverstein Properties, a residential property in New York, for $247.5 million; and Menora Mivtachim Group, Clal Insurance and Amitim, which together with Harbor Group bought the CBS Building in New York from CBS for $760 million.
Sternthal talks about how the economic crisis is affecting the US real estate market. "The real estate world is built on financing. When interest rates rise, the cost of financing rises. There is more caution and so in the last four or five months we have seen less deals. Our clients are operating more cautiously over potential purchases. They are waiting to see if there will be an adjustment to the price of properties that they want to buy. There is an expectation that prices will fall."
He adds that we are seeing a fall in the number of deals in various places throughout the US. "There is a gap between what a seller thinks and what a buyer is ready to buy for. There is no balance. I anticipate a fall in prices in certain markets and then they will begin to buy more."
Adv. Sternthal points out that, "In the past few months, there is a feeling of wait and see, if interest rates will continue to rise and if leases will rise with the rates, or will stay where they are."
He says that the Covid pandemic affected the US office market and explains that in contrast to Israel about 30% of US employees, mainly in the big cities, have not returned to the office, especially in properties that are not Class A."
Israeli warmth not necessarily helpful
"It's better to be employed in an Israeli startup operating in the US than an American one," says GT partner Adv. Meira Ferziger, who specializes in US labor law for the firm, and immigrated to Israel from the US in 2000. She grew up in Massachusetts in a family that always supported Israel and she studied courses on Jewish history at university before deciding that she wanted to move to Israel.
She stresses that employees rights anchored in Israeli law don't exist in many states in the US. "Israel is a state with socialist labor laws, and the US is capitalistic." So for example in some US states, employers do not have to give their employees sick leave or maternity leave and there is no mandate to pay compensation after dismissal. Even though many social rights that exist for employees in Israel are not mandatory, Ferziger points out that Israeli employers in the US provide better conditions to their employees.
As part of her job, Adv. Ferziger briefs employees before they travel to the US. She talks about an interesting change that occurred in the US labor market since the Covid pandemic, in which employers allow unlimited vacation days, known as "flexible leave." The idea is that each employee takes time off according to their needs in a way that matches the needs of the company.
Adv. Ferziger points out that the difference between Israeli and US work culture is not only expressed in the law but also in substantial cultural differences. "In Israel there is a perceptions of families in companies, in contrast to the US. Israelis are warm. In the US, it is not acceptable, for example, to come into the office and hug people, nor is it done to ask personal questions. It is considered unprofessional. Americans are very careful, and protect their privacy."
Adv. Ferziger's role is to bridge these gaps. "The warmth of Israelis can be interpreted in an unacceptable way in the US. What is acceptable here is not acceptable there. Companies doing business in the US should be aware of this. I teach the companies to bridge the cultural gaps."
To illustrate these disparities, she talks about prohibited discrimination based on hair, which exists in New York. One should be careful not to relate to the employee's hair, due to sensitivities among the African-American population. While in Israel they will not think that there is a problem with referring to an employee's hair, positively or negatively, in New York it is not permissible to express an opinion on the matter.
Immigrated to Israel from Aleppo, moved to the US and returned to Israel
GT Israel's managing partner is Adv. Joey Shabot, who leads the capital market, tech, and mergers and acquisitions department. He was born in Aleppo, Syria in 1978 and as a two year old brought to Israel by his family via Lebanon and France. His family struggled to settle in Israel. His older brothers were placed in residential schools and his parents felt alienated, and after six years moved to Brooklyn in the US, where other members of their extended family lived. Adv. Shabot grew up in Brooklyn, spent a gap year at yeshiva in Israel before studying at Harvard and University of Pennsylvania and working in New York law firms. In 2010, he visited Israel, heard that GT was opening a law office in the country and got a job there.
"Our story is the story of immigration to Israel," he says, summing up GT's starting out in Israel. "The firm was set up out of Zionism together with proven economic viability." Initially, GT came to Israel to help Israeli companies prosper. "After the second intifada, morale was low in the Israeli high-tech world." Adv. Shabot points out that regulation initially made it impossible for the firm to open an office in Israel , but after 2010 - the Israel Bar Association changed the rules - and GT founded its office in Israel.
Greenberg Traurig (GT) law firm
Founded in the US in 1967, the firm specializes in all aspects of commercial law and has opened 43 offices worldwide. The Israeli office was founded in 2012. Some of its outstanding deals included representing ITT in the $140 million acquisition of Israeli industrial valves company Habonim. GT employs more than 2,500 lawyers and is the world's third largest law firm.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 7, 2022.
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