Lawyer Monthly - October 2021 Edition

OCT 2021 | WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM disputes at an early stage, even before petitioning the courts, but these were the exceptions. In our experience, the suitable time for compromise, as far as the two sides are concerned, is at a later stage of the judicial process – following massive discovery of documents, an attempt to reach a settlement at mediation, and submission of witnesses’ affidavits. At this late stage, many of the “cards” have been exposed, each party can assess their risks and prospects in the proceedings and there may be better chances of reaching a reasonable compromise. In your experience in negotiating for tech-focused clients, is there a common denominator for what investors like and what, more than anything else, will deter them from entering into a deal? After years of representing investors from Israel and abroad, we have learned that investors are always interested in product innovation and uniqueness at the company they are investing in and its chance of sweeping the market. Having said that, it is just as important to investors to understand the personality and state of mind of the entrepreneurs at the companies they invest in. Investors inject companies with money for the sole purpose of seeing return on their investment. That is their only goal. Entrepreneurs do not always manage Your firm is characterised in part by the variety of clients it represents, from established global companies to start- ups and family-owned firms. How do you deal with the diversity that arises from the professional relationships with different types of clients? When you serve such a polarised variety of clients, there is no option other than adapting the way you comport yourself to the kind of client business you are working with, and, specifically, to its organisational culture. Together with conducting legal background checks, we always try to learn as much as possible about each of our client’s field of activities and business environment. This helps us better understand the client’s individual needs and provide better service. In order to properly conduct ourselves when working with various clients, we use the knowledge we have amassed over the years and adapt it to the kind of organisation we are representing. For example, when representing a multinational company, we always account for the organisational hierarchy and operate in complete accordance with it. MY LEGAL LIFE - MOSHE KAHN “ When you serve such a polarised variety of clients, there is no option other than adapting the way you comport yourself to the kind of client business you are working with. ” On the other hand, when we represent a start-up, we often find ourselves working simultaneously with the management and with investor representatives. When we represent certain family-owned businesses we will be sensitive to the fact that, often, important decisions are also made by family members and not just by the CEO or the board. Aside from this, the extensive regulation in Israel forces us to constantly learn and keep up with the regulations for the represented business’s specific sector. This is no simple task and requires time and resources, but this cannot be forgone if we want to provide excellent legal service. Speaking as someone who often appears in Israeli courts, how resolvable are business disputes through arbitration outside of the courts prior to appealing or directly after the beginning of a legal confrontation? In my experience, complex disputes that deal with large sums of money are not resolved as long as the parties are unwilling to compromise. Before appealing to the court and even after the beginning of court proceedings, when each party believes in its own righteousness and is sure of its victory, the parties are usually not yet ready for compromise. For this reason, the chances at this stage of achieving an agreed-upon settlement are low. We have had cases in which we were able to solve 23