What legal work do offshore lawyers see relating to Israel?
Offshore law firm Walkers has a long history of working with clients in Israel, advising on matters of Cayman, BVI, Bermuda, Jersey, Guernsey and Irish law. Partner, Neil McDonald, from Walkers’ London office leads the firm’s Israel desk. In this Q&A, Neil discusses the trends in instructions emanating from Israel since 2019, as well as more recent trends in the context of Walkers’ Israel client base.
What kind of legal work do offshore lawyers see that touches on Israel?
Walkers has a long-standing relationship with its Israeli clients and has been active in Israel since Walkers’ inception. We are instructed on a broad variety of matters with an Israel nexus covering various product areas, including corporate, finance, private equity, regulatory, wealth structuring, insolvency and dispute resolution. However, having reviewed the data, just over half of the instructions that we have seen since 2019 have touched on investment funds in some shape or form, and that is consistent with my experience.
Which offshore jurisdictions are favoured by Israeli lawyers and clients?
Again having reviewed the data from 2019 onwards, around half of our instructions involve Cayman law and those Cayman matters tend to involve investment funds, which is unsurprising as the Cayman Islands is a leading jurisdiction for investment funds globally and continues to be the touchstone domicile for start-up and emerging funds. However, we also undertake substantial numbers of BVI law instructions for our Israeli clients, in particular involving corporate structuring, ‘outbound’ real estate investment and digital assets matters, as well as regularly advising on Bermuda, Jersey and Guernsey law matters.
Are there any key trends involving matters touching on Israel from your perspective?
The key trend is that we are doing more work across the board, and work of a higher value. Despite all of the restrictions caused by the pandemic, we experienced a notable increase in instructions during 2021 and this financial year we are poised to exceed last year’s exciting growth. Over the past three years, we have worked with Israeli clients on over 100 matters, and we are currently working on numerous matters with Israeli clients, encompassing a broad range of sectors, across the firm.
In my role as a corporate and finance lawyer, increased levels of M&A has been the key work trend – which has, in turn, driven acquisition finance activity, as clients have utilised debt financing to take advantage of investment opportunities. However, I’ve also seen a substantial uptick in fintech and digital assets matters, where our regulatory and corporate advisory expertise can be brought to bear; and the economic effects of the pandemic have also resulted in increased levels of restructuring work, with us assisting clients in formulating structures and techniques to enable them to refinance or restructure themselves.
What is the outlook for 2022 from the offshore world?
We anticipate a busy 2022 and are recruiting heavily into all of our offices, including in London where I am based. A combination of the ending of some Covid-related restrictions and the significant amount of “dry powder” capital held by PE houses suggests that the M&A market, in particular, will continue to be a busy one. There is also a significant amount of regulatory change – especially in respect of fintech and digital assets – happening across all of our jurisdictions, which we expect to be relevant to many of our Israeli clients.
Are there any key developments at Walkers that are relevant to Israeli clients?
The most recent key development in our London office was the addition of Bermuda law capability, allowing us to provide time-zone sensitive Bermuda, as well as Cayman and BVI, law support to our clients in Israel. This move followed the successful large-scale roll out of Bermuda law services in our Hong Kong and Singapore offices, with our Bermuda, Hong Kong, London and Singapore offices now forming an international powerhouse offering a seamless, global Bermuda law service to our clients.
A further key development, reflecting our continued growth, is our ongoing recruitment activity. We now number more than 1,000 members of staff across ten offices globally covering six laws – Cayman, BVI, Bermuda, Jersey, Guernsey and Irish law; and we anticipate that the strong platform we have built through our critical mass of talented lawyers, strong brand profile and consistent engagement with the market will stand us in good stead to continue providing our Israeli clients with the trusted, best-in-class advice and experienced, committed and responsive service they require.
