Gabriel Zubok

Gabriel Zubok founded ZUBOK & PARTNERS and leads it. He is personally on the files of the firm's international clients: the client speaks to the lawyer who is taking the decisions on the matter, not to an intermediary who relays them.

Behind that is two decades of practice in Israel. What it buys the client is an early and plain answer: which institution decides the matter, what that institution will ask for, and what has to be produced before anything can move. Where the answer is that something will be difficult, it is said at the outset rather than discovered later.

A foreign client's matter in Israel rarely stays inside one subject. A company is formed, and then a bank has to be satisfied about who owns it and where its money comes from. A property is bought, and the payment for it has to clear through an Israeli bank. Someone is brought in from abroad to run what has been set up, and a permit has to be obtained for them. His own work covers that ground — the corporate, banking, regulatory, real estate and immigration side of the practice — so that the parts of a matter that depend on one another are not run apart from one another.

The work he takes on

Doing Business in Israel

Entering the Israeli market means putting in place a legal, corporate and banking presence that Israeli institutions, counterparties and advisers will work with: the entity itself, its registrations, the account it will operate through, and the advisers around it. He puts that presence in place and then runs it with the client, rather than handing the file over at the point of registration.

Corporate & Commercial

The documents a business actually runs on — how the Israeli company is owned and governed, what the owners have agreed between themselves, and what the company has agreed with everyone else. For a foreign group this is also where decisions taken at head office have to be put into a form Israeli registries, banks and counterparties will accept.

Banking, Payments & Financial Compliance

A principal practice of the firm, not a subsection of corporate work. Israeli banks will not act on a new account or an incoming transfer until the person, the money and the transaction have been documented to their satisfaction. He establishes what the bank will ask, assembles the legal and commercial documentation that answers it, and presents the matter in a form the bank's compliance function can review; where a transfer is held, an account restricted or a request for information left unanswered, he takes over the correspondence. What is undertaken is preparation, representation and coordination. The decision belongs to the bank.

Dispute Resolution & Litigation

Much of a dispute is decided by what was done before the claim was filed. He takes the file at whatever stage it reaches the firm — in negotiation where that ends it, and before the Israeli courts where it does not — and reports on it in English to a client who will not be in the room.

Regulation & Government Authorities

Much of what a business may do in Israel is decided in a ministry, a regulator or a licensing authority rather than in the boardroom. He establishes what applies to the planned activity, prepares what has to be submitted, and acts for the client in the dealings that follow.

Employment & Corporate Immigration

An international employer takes on Israeli obligations from its first hire in Israel, and often needs to bring people in from abroad as well. He acts for the employer on both sides of that — the terms of employment, and the permits the work requires, including before the Population and Immigration Authority.

Real Estate & Investments

A property transaction in Israel is a legal matter and a banking matter at the same time. He acts on the transaction itself, on the inquiries that have to be made before anything is signed, and on the payments that have to clear alongside it; for a buyer or seller who is not resident in Israel the two cannot be run separately.

Where he appears

He appears before the Israeli courts and tribunals; before Israeli banks, in account opening, compliance reviews and disputes; and before Israeli ministries, government authorities and the Population and Immigration Authority.

He also works alongside the client's own people — foreign counsel, accountants and tax advisers, and the banks on the other side of a transfer — so that what is done in Israel holds together with what has been decided elsewhere, and so that the client is not left to translate between them.

Practice areas

• Doing Business in Israel
• Corporate & Commercial
• Banking, Payments & Financial Compliance
• Dispute Resolution & Litigation
• Regulation & Government Authorities
• Employment & Corporate Immigration
• Real Estate & Investments

Languages

He works in English, Hebrew and Russian, and acts in Hebrew before Israeli courts, banks and government offices. A matter can be conducted in any of the three; what is filed in Hebrew is reported to the client in English.

Contact

• Telephone: +972 3-376-11-73
• Email: Office@zuboklaw.co.il