Winston Taylor: How the newly combined firm can service Israeli companies
Winston & Strawn and Taylor Wessing have officially completed their merger and formed Winston Taylor, a giant transatlantic firm with over 1,400 lawyers and USD 1.75 billion in revenue.
The implications for Israeli businesses are strongly beneficial, and we asked Winston Taylor’s Israel desk leader Josef Fuss to dive deeper into them:
IsraelDesks: For Israeli clients and businesses unfamiliar with the new platform, how would you describe Winston Taylor and what the combined firm now represents in the international legal market?
Josef Fuss: Winston Taylor is a transatlantic law firm built for the businesses, people, and markets driving capital and innovation. The firm is present in the major commercial centers that matter to global clients: the US, the UK, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. With a team of over 1,400 lawyers, Winston Taylor brings deep experience in Major Litigation, Critical Transactions, Strategic IP, and Private Wealth; and four focus sectors: Technology, Media & Telecommunications, Life Sciences & Healthcare, Financial Services, and Projects, Energy & Infrastructure. Whatever the challenge, Winston Taylor is in the room with its clients, shoulder to shoulder in the everyday moments, and the ones that change everything.
IsraelDesks: What strategic advantages does the merger create for Israeli companies operating or expanding internationally?
Josef Fuss: Winston Taylor provides a significant boost to business in Israel as it opens many new opportunities for Israeli companies in the US, Europe and Latin America. We’re excited to be able to serve Israeli businesses looking at broader expansion to the US market, whether that’s listing on US capital markets, acquiring US targets or selling to US buyers, raising finance in the US, or operating and expanding products and services to the US.
The ability to service IP-rich Israeli businesses across the US and Europe in one firm makes our new firm a compelling proposition and is a significant advantage for Israeli businesses looking at rapid growth and for support on their critical transactions.
Winston Taylor builds upon the European coverage that the UK-led businesses of Taylor Wessing have been offering Israeli clients for decades. All the key lawyers offering those services will now belong to one firm – Winston Taylor.
IsraelDesks: How does the combined firm strengthen your ability to support Israeli clients on cross-border transactions, disputes, and strategic growth initiatives?
Josef Fuss: We’re focusing on those areas where our clients need us most, and that most certainly applies to our Israeli client and contact base. The new firm will focus on four key areas:
(1) Critical transactions – we’ll help drive deals across the value spectrum, from early-stage venture funding to significant growth investments, private equity, M&A and capital markets.
(2) Strategic IP – we’ll work with IP-rich businesses to protect, scale and defend ideas with a holistic IP offering. Winston Taylor combines one of the strongest IP groups in Europe with a very strong US practice, to create one of the largest and most highly-rated IP teams in the world.
(3) Major litigation – we’ll protect and defend our clients as they break new ground, and our combination’s strength means that we’ll fast be recognised as market leaders in complex investigations and cross-border litigation.
(4) Private wealth. Private capital often sits at the heart of leading businesses, industries, and markets in Israel and across the globe. From founders and family offices to multi-jurisdictional estates, our new firm will support private wealth – and the businesses it creates and grows – throughout its life-cycle. These four key areas resonate strongly with our Israeli client base.
IsraelDesks: Which sectors or types of Israeli businesses do you believe stand to benefit most from Winston Taylor’s expanded global platform?
Josef Fuss: It has a positive impact on all our Israeli clients, irrespective of sector. But we’ll continue to focus on Israeli companies in key sectors such as Technology, Life Sciences & Healthcare, Financial Services, and real estate.
IsraelDesks: Looking ahead, what role do you see Israel playing within Winston Taylor’s broader international strategy?
Josef Fuss: Because Israeli tech firms have forged such an important and leading role in the tech sector the country will remain a key geographic focus for us. On the one hand we’ll continue to see innovative new businesses seeking international markets to sell their products and services to and in which they can seek investment and raise finance for future growth and on the other we will see strategic and financial investors and acquirers looking to invest and acquire these businesses. Our tech-sector expertise, our long history of supporting innovators and fast-growth businesses and those investing and acquiring them, and our ability to provide extensive access to both European and US markets means that Winston Taylor will quickly become a firm of choice for such critical transactions.
