Israel Desks Under the Spotlight – DLA Piper’s Jeremy Lustman
In this new weekly section, we profile the driving force behind Israel Desks firms, as we catch up with the prominent leaders of the global law firms with Israel Desks: This week – Jeremy Lustman, partner and the global head of DLA’s Israel Practice Group.
You have had an Israel Desk and team for some time, what was the driving force behind that and how does it fit in with the firm’s overall strategy and focus?
Our office has grown as our workflow has grown. This means that the number of clients and jurisdictions that are servicing our clients has grown considerably. As our workflow has grown, we’ve needed to expand our team to service these clients in a professional and prompt manner. This fits in well with our firm’s overall strategy: we support our clients wherever they need work done and in all each of the locales where they have business operations. Given that the Israeli ecosystem is largely outbound driven, particularly in technology exports, we work to service our clients in all areas.
What are the challenges that you face as you look to expand and grow the Israel Desk? How do you manage them?
A primary challenge is bridging the cultural and logistical differences between jurisdictions (i.e., different work weeks, differing national holiday schedules), so being able to manage expectations and workflow in a way that keeps the train moving is something that is important to us. In a similar vein, it is important for our office to manage legal fees and the associated expectations to be sure that clients feel that they are getting great value and our colleagues feel that they are being correctly compensated. Lastly, as our client workflow has increased, we have been able to selectively grow our super-star team, allowing us to feel wonderful about the quality of our work and offerings.
What kind of strategies, mindset or understanding are required for the head of Israeli desk?
As there are an increasing number of firms on the market, we are sure to differentiate ourselves with our story and our reputation that defines us in the expanding ecosystem. Nothing is too small for us to work on, as we are focused on being relationship-oriented as opposed to transactional-oriented. Our approach is asking how we can get in the door to foster strong relationships; through this relationship-focus, hopefully our work will grow. This culture is present firm-wide and each of us look at our role as though nothing is too low or too high for us.
What industries or areas do you look to emphasize and develop in the coming year(s), with regards to your Israel Desk?
Our largest number of matters is in the high-tech sector, and we are always looking to continue being cutting edge in the market; however, our practice is industry agnostic so we can help in any industry and market. Therefore, we also work closely with a number of traditional Israeli industries that have demonstrated high and consistent growth, including banking, agriculture, and insurance. Regarding markets, we will continue to focus on the ecosystems where Israeli companies are active. We are additionally focused on looking toward the growing geographies where Israeli companies are active, such as the UAE and the broader Middle East.
