On the eve of the new Jewish year, Maariv, one of Israel’s oldest and most respected publications, asked some leaders of the business community in Israel to share their most significant achievement from the past year. Among the eight people selected by Maariv was Gary M. Epstein, managing shareholder of Greenberg Traurig’s Tel Aviv office; co-chair of its Israel Practice; and senior chair of the firm’s Global Corporate & Securities Practice, who offered the readers a glance into the Tel Aviv office’s history, recent achievements, and goals for the future:
Legal Zionism/Adv. Gary Epstein
Managing shareholder of the Israel office of the international law firm Greenberg Traurig responds:
‘For me, the New Year provides an opportunity for introspection, a fixed point at which one is provided the opportunity to stop and evaluate present situations, as well as accomplishments, challenges, and objectives. Among a broad range of accomplishments for our relatively new office, one “significant achievement” distinguished itself in 5776: the celebration of the office’s 4th anniversary through the expansion of its operations and the establishment of an international real estate department in our Israel office, as part of our renowned worldwide real estate practice. Real estate is a field that has been a focus of outbound Israeli activity and the size and scope of Israeli involvement in international deals has increased substantially. I am personally proud of this achievement, as we had set a goal as an office to expand our local platform to offer a full range of services (not requiring the practice of Israeli law). We were the first major international firm to open a foreign law office registered with the Israel Bar. We remain the only such firm and we are proud to offer an increasingly broad range of legal expertise.
Four years ago, at our first “Haramat Kosit” (office celebration marking the advent of the New Year), we wondered what the future might bring. Given our dream of helping to bring Israel to the world and the world to Israel – we can now say with confidence that we have succeeded, b’ezrat haShem, beyond our wildest expectations. Among our larger team, we now have five lawyers who have made Aliyah with their families to join the office. We represent major international corporations from throughout the world making acquisitions and investments in Israel, and major Israeli companies in transactions abroad. Partners in our firm from around the world have visited Israel over 100 times this past year, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who chairs the firm’s Privacy and Crisis Management Practice, and who joined the firm, among other things, because of its Israel office and the wide cyber-related knowledge for which the country is known. So, this Rosh Hashana, with millions of fellow Jews, and plenty of others who love Israel and stand with her, we look with satisfaction at what we have done and dream of doing more.’
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