September Edition 2020

34 Adir Waldman , M anaging Director of Israel group, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (“Freshfields”): As far as we can tell, as with M&A globally, the pandemic has depressed M&A activity into Israel. With that said, we have been seeing some green shoots in recent weeks, though only time will tell when and how deal activity bounces back. MarkSelinger ,New Yorkpartner andkeyfigure inthe Israel teamofMcDermott Will & Emery (“MWE”): After an initial lull frommid-March to mid-April, the US capital markets opened up and gained momentum in early May. During this time, issuers returned to the markets in great numbers, leading to a public offering boom in May-June 2020. Several of our Israeli clients, especially in the biotechnology and life sciences areas, participated in this activity; we handled 10 follow-on offerings for 5 different Israeli issuers during this period. Lustman at DLA a dded: The COVID-19 pandemic has presented our clients with multiple unforeseeable challenges related to employment issues - significant decreases in the workforce, work from home matters, health and safety concerns, reopening of the workplace, review of policies and procedures, and privacy and cybersecurity issues, to name just a few. Although all of these issues are critical, our employment team has been guiding our clients virtually around the clock over the past several months to help them with the unfortunate remedial steps many of them have had to take, including furloughs, short-term closures / layoffs and reductions in force. Although these measures may be allowed in certain circumstances in some countries, local laws vary greatly. Our global platform has enabled us to provide local, country-by-country advice in real time, and has helped our clients carefully plan and implement these important – and what our clients hope will be temporary – cost-cutting measures. Clients rely on us to provide important updates in real time, and we are regularly reporting to them on employment legislation, guidance and other emergency measures that are being introduced daily around the world. From M&A to capital markets transactions, employment to IP and more, what have the legal giants seen the current pandemic do with regards to Israel-related work? Unforeseeable employment challenges needs updates in real time