Herzog Fox & Neeman: The Cross-Border Powerhouse

Part of: The Big Six: Inside Israel's Law Firm Oligopoly

More than 500 lawyers. 200+ partners. 50+ specialty departments. Israel's largest law firm and the default counsel for global multinationals operating in the country. Most often on the other side of the table on cross-border deals — and foreign acquirers who show up under-counseled pay.

Herzog Fox & Neeman is Israel's largest law firm and the structural gate between foreign capital and the Israeli economy.

500+ lawyers. 200+ partners. 50+ specialty departments. Founded in 1972 by Chaim Herzog (later Israel's sixth president), Michael Fox, and Dr. Yaakov Neeman (later Israeli minister of finance and minister of justice). The most consistently top-tier-ranked Israeli firm in the international directories.

When a global multinational decides to enter the Israeli market, Herzog is the first call. When a Fortune 500 acquirer evaluates an Israeli target, Herzog is most often across the table. When the Israeli Ministry of Finance or the Tax Authority needs a counterparty with the bench depth to argue a precedent-setting position, Herzog is on the short list every time.

The Founders

The firm carries the names of three of the most consequential figures in twentieth-century Israeli legal and political life.

Chaim Herzog — sixth President of Israel (1983–1993), former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, member of Knesset. Founded the firm in 1972 after a senior career in the Israel Defense Forces and government.

Michael Fox — anchored the firm's corporate, infrastructure, energy, and natural-resources practice. The architect of Herzog's industrial-counsel franchise.

Dr. Yaakov Neeman — author of multiple foundational tax-law treatises in Israel, later Israeli minister of finance and minister of justice. Established the firm's tax franchise, which remains the practice's deepest commercial moat.

The founder generation set the operating posture that still defines the firm: government-grade, internationally facing, technically demanding, and structurally embedded in the Israeli regulatory and policy machine.

The Deal Sheet

A non-exhaustive set of publicly reported mandates makes the firm's reach visible.

• Israeli counsel on Teva Pharmaceuticals' ~$2.3 billion bond offering — joint bookrunning managers represented by Herzog.
• Israeli counsel to NeoGames in its ~$1.2 billion acquisition by Aristocrat.
• Major employment, regulatory, and corporate work for Teva and Israel Electric Corporation — two of the country's largest employers and most regulated entities.
• Recurring inbound M&A, joint-venture, and licensing work across pharma, defense, semiconductors, fintech, gaming, and consumer goods.

Herzog has Tier-1 rankings across Chambers Global, The Legal 500 EMEA, and IFLR1000 in more categories than any other Israeli firm.

The Tax Franchise

Tax is where Herzog's commercial moat is widest.

The firm has shaped Israel's tax regime through landmark rulings, advised on the structuring of major cross-border transactions, and built one of the deepest international-tax practices in the country. The team is led by chairman Meir Linzen, a specialist in cross-border M&A tax and international tax planning, who also serves as president of the International Jewish Lawyers Association.

Tax is not a back-office support function at Herzog. It is a primary client-development engine. Multinationals, family offices, and ultra-high-net-worth individuals retain Herzog for tax structuring first and pull in the rest of the firm's practices around it. For the diaspora cohort relocating under the 2026 aliyah tax reform, Herzog is one of the small number of firms with the bench to handle structuring at scale.

Litigation and Class Actions

Herzog runs one of Israel's largest litigation and dispute-resolution practices, with deep capability in class-action defense, securities litigation, and regulatory investigations.

That matters because Israel is, by a wide margin, one of the most aggressive securities class-action environments in the developed world — a function of the 2006 Class Actions Law, an active plaintiffs' bar, and regulators whose findings frequently anchor follow-on civil claims.

Boards of Israeli-listed and Israeli-connected companies who do not have first-rate class-action defense counsel are exposed in ways most foreign general counsels do not fully appreciate.

The Linguistic Bench

Of Herzog's 500+ lawyers, more than 50 are native English speakers with foreign bar admissions or substantial overseas experience — the US, UK, and Australia primarily. The firm publicly reports working capacity in German, French, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Portuguese, and Arabic.

That multilingual bench is a structural advantage for cross-border work. It is not easily replicable. Herzog also operates the first Israeli law firm Silicon Valley representative office — a direct real-time channel between Tel Aviv and the Bay Area technology base.

The Investor Layer

Three points for foreign buyers.

First — on inbound deals, Herzog is most often on the other side of the table by default. Foreign acquirers who do not retain a Tier-1 Israeli firm face a structural information asymmetry. Israeli counsel knows the regulators. Israeli counsel writes the standard documents. Showing up under-counseled is a measurable cost.

Second — the cross-border tax piece is non-trivial. Israeli tax planning around acquisition structures, Section 102 (Israel's employee equity scheme), and trapped-cash issues is its own discipline. A foreign acquirer that gets it wrong leaves money on the table or walks into a deferred liability.

Third — post-closing regulatory exposure is real. Antitrust, securities, employment, and data regulation in Israel are not light-touch. Long-tail litigation risk on Israel-connected transactions runs through the same handful of firms.

The Cross-Border Posture

Herzog operates as if it is an international firm that happens to be headquartered in Tel Aviv. The bench, the languages, the formal referral relationships across the US, UK, Germany, France, Japan, and the Gulf, and the Silicon Valley representative office all reflect that posture. That is not optional — it is the only viable operating model for serving Israel's cross-border deal market.

Six firms gate the cross-border deal flow of one of the most globally exposed small economies in the developed world. Herzog Fox & Neeman is the first among them.

---

Herzog Fox & Neeman — FAQ

What is Herzog Fox & Neeman?

Herzog Fox & Neeman is Israel's largest law firm — 500+ lawyers, 200+ partners, 50+ specialty departments — and the default counsel for global multinationals operating in Israel. Founded in 1972 by Chaim Herzog, Michael Fox, and Dr. Yaakov Neeman. Headquartered in Tel Aviv with a Haifa office and a Silicon Valley representative office.

Who founded Herzog Fox & Neeman?

The firm was founded in 1972 by Chaim Herzog (later sixth president of Israel), Michael Fox, and Dr. Yaakov Neeman (later Israeli minister of finance and minister of justice). The founders set the operating posture that still defines the firm: government-grade, internationally facing, structurally embedded in the Israeli regulatory and policy machine.

How big is Herzog Fox & Neeman?

500+ lawyers including more than 200 partners, organized across 50+ specialty departments. Israel has roughly 80,000 licensed lawyers; Herzog alone employs more than 0.6% of them. The partner bench is larger than the entire lawyer count of most domestic Israeli law firms.

Who is Meir Linzen?

Meir Linzen is the chairman of Herzog Fox & Neeman and a specialist in cross-border M&A tax and international tax planning. He also serves as president of the International Jewish Lawyers Association.

What is the World Law Group, and what is Herzog's role in it?

The World Law Group is a global network of independent law firms with active referral channels across Europe, North America, and Asia. Herzog Fox & Neeman is the sole Israeli member.

What rankings does Herzog Fox & Neeman hold?

Herzog has Tier-1 rankings across Chambers Global, The Legal 500 EMEA, and IFLR1000 in more categories than any other Israeli law firm. It has been named Israel's M&A Legal Adviser of the Year by Mergermarket in 2023 and 2025 and has won multiple international tax, employment, and disputes awards.

What practice areas is Herzog Fox & Neeman best known for?

Tax (the firm's deepest commercial moat), cross-border M&A, capital markets, securities and class-action defense, banking and financial regulation, employment, technology regulation, and a deep regulated-industries bench across pharma, defense, energy, telecom, and gaming.

Where is Herzog Fox & Neeman located?

The firm is headquartered at Herzog Tower, 6 Yitzhak Sadeh Street, Tel Aviv, with an additional Israeli office in Haifa and a Silicon Valley representative office — the first by an Israeli law firm.

Why does choice of Israeli counsel matter for foreign acquirers?

In Israel, choice of counsel is closer to a market-access question than a procurement question. The top firms know the regulators, hold the precedents, and write the standard documents most subsequent deals copy. A Tier-1 Israeli firm on a deal is, in many cases, a precondition for transactions closing on a realistic timeline.

---

Part of the Olam Big Six law-firm cluster. Companion pieces: The Big Six: Inside Israel's Law Firm Oligopoly · Aphek-Liebowitz and Israel's Securities Class-Action Machine. See also: Aliyah & Wealth Migration · Israeli Luxury 2026.