Fenwick & West is mentioned in an article in The Am Law Daily on foreign lawyers working on deals in Israel, which the article calls a “hub for cross-border M&A work in the technology sector.” The article mentions that Fenwick is representing Cisco in its proposed $475 million acquisition of Israeli cell phone network equipment maker Intucell.
With a designated Israel Practice Group spearheaded by partners Cindy Hess, Barry Kramer and Bill Schreiber, Fenwick has strong ties with Israeli companies, both public and private. In addition to representing Cisco in its acquisition of Intucell, Fenwick has a long history of representing U.S.-based companies on their investments in and acquisitions of Israel-based start-ups, as well as Israeli start-ups and companies with Israeli branches in their acquisitions by U.S.-based companies. Among Israel’s largest high-tech deals, Fenwick represented Israeli company Shopping.com in its $620 million acquisition by eBay.
Among others, Fenwick also represented Israeli virtual storage start-up ScaleIO in its acquisition by EMC Corporation, Facebook in its acquisition of Tel Aviv-based Face.com, Wanova in its acquisition by VMware, Siliquent Technologies in its acquisition by Broadcom Corporation, Topio in its acquisition by Network Appliance (now NetApp) and Cyota in its acquisition by RSA Systems. Fenwick has also represented Cisco in its acquisitions and investments in other Israeli companies
In collaboration with Israeli law firm Shibolet & Co, Fenwick partners Barry Kramer and Michael Patrick produce an annual venture capital survey, “Trends in Legal Terms in Venture Financings in Israel,” which analyzes the terms of venture financings for Israeli and Israeli-related technology companies.
In June, start-up and venture capital group chair Cindy Hess and mergers and acquisitions partner Greg Roussel traveled to Israel as part of a trip sponsored by the California Israel Chamber of Commerce with a delegation of lawyers, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to meet with business leaders. Later that month, the Tel Aviv and Central District of the Israel Bar Association invited tax attorney Idan Netser to Tel Aviv to speak at a Foreign Law Firms Conference on the entry and activity of foreign law firms in Israel.
Hess told the Daily Journal in May that similar to Silicon Valley, Israel is a “hot bed of startup companies, with a great entrepreneurial culture.”