Rick Mann is the head of GKH’s M&A practice, based in Tel Aviv, he said: “We’ve found that the portion of our work related to cyber security has grown tremendously in the past year. We’re seeing some incredibly strong interest right now in Israeli cybersecurity companies. So we thought it was a good idea to review and introduced the world of cybersecurity regulation both inside and outside of Israel. Therefore we partnered with Wiggin and Dana to put this seminar together.
“The idea is to make people aware of the regulatory environment in this field. So both companies and employers can understand better what they are getting into when they make an acquisition in cybersecurity.
“In general we’re seeing very strong interest in Israeli companies from overseas for a long time but in the last year and a half we’ve seen a rise of interest specifically in cybersecurity. The perception is that Israel has a lot of technology to offer in this field.
“However, there is a sensitivity that surrounds cybersecurity in the regulatory world. It is evolving all the time to make sure this technology doesn’t get into the hands of those that would abuse it. What we are seeing is a dynamic regulatory environment and in general a very active acquisition market.
“At GKH we’ve worked on a number of major transactions in the last year. All the cases are overseas companies buying or ivesting in Israeli companies. We have experience from the amount of acquisitions we make in the States and expertise in the various different legal areas that are related like I.T., transactional and tax.”
James Glasser and Tahlia Townsend from W&D will be leading the seminar. They will focus on disentangling encryption regulations, how to comply with data privacy requirements, dealing with U.S economic sanctions and also on problems arising through M&A.
Steven Malech is a New York-based partner in W&D’s Litigation Department and has a number of clients from Israel. He hs been one of the main organizers of the event and came to Israel last week in order to take part in the seminar.
He said: “We wanted to put the event on to give folks in Israel an opportunity to become more aware of regulations in the U.S which might affect them in Israel, which they might not otherwise be aware of. Also if you are going to acquire a business like this we aim to let you know about what kind of things you need to be aware as part of that process. At the same time we also want to increase the visibility of our two firms and so that we can show our knowledge in this area.
“We have a good working relationship with GKH and it’s a great opportunity to talk about issues applicable on both sides. There are a lot of transactions involving individuals or companies both in America and Israel that are subject to the two sets of regulations so it makes sense for us to present the complete picture.
“At Wiggin and Dana we offer a very high-level of technical and subject matter expertise in a number of locations throughout America, with broad international experience and we also do it at a more economic price from many other major practices. We also regularly work with other firms both in America and abroad.”
For more information about the seminar, please click here.
