Overview

We are one of Israel’s leading employment and employee benefits practices, highly regarded for our services across all aspects of contentious and non-contentious employment and employee benefits law. S. Horowitz & Co. is also one of the few large Israeli commercial law firms to offer a full-service employment and employee benefits practice.

With the support of the most prominent, active and robust litigation group in Israel, clients turn to S. Horowitz & Co. for the formidable strength the firm possesses in employment litigation in its own right.

Our Employment Practice Team has built on its already enhanced visibility in the field, advising local and international clients, including multinational corporations, local businesses and start-ups as well as public institutions, embassies and other government-owned, regulated entities, on a wide range of labour and employment issues.

We have extensive experience advising our clients, their in-house counsel, and their HR departments on all employment-related matters arising from the operation, management and development of their business and trading activities in Israel. We are well versed in providing local representation to international entities unfamiliar with local law and custom.

Our court experience is second to none. We appear on behalf of clients before the entire range of Israeli labour courts, arbitration tribunals and mediation boards in cases involving individual and collective employment disputes of every kind, including:

(a) Collective labor disputes with employee unions and employee representatives regarding workplace conditions, redundancy programs, and pension and termination benefits;

(b) Claims of unfair labor practices including wrongful discrimination on grounds of gender, sexual harassment, parenthood and race, defamation of character, bullying in the workplace;

(c) Claims of unlawful competition, solicitation and breach of confidentiality commitments;

(d) Class actions involving labor disputes;

(e) Claims for overtime and compensation for time worked on the weekly day of rest and public holidays;

(f) Claims for entitlements due to survivors or dependents of an employee upon his/her passing, including entitlements arising from “common-law” marriages;

(g) Claims of independent contractors for employment benefits;

(h) Collective labor disputes with employee unions and employee representatives regarding representativeness  in budding union situations.

As one of the few full service commercial law firms in Israel, we offer a complete employment and employee benefits practice covering all aspects of contentious and non-contentious employment and employee benefits law, working closely and seamlessly with other departments in the firm, =such as: corporate, tax, intellectual property, white-collar crime.

 

Our legal practice includes ongoing counsel on employment issues and specifically:

  • Negotiating and drafting employment and consulting agreements and termination of such agreements at all levels, including in multi-national situations;
  • Negotiating and drafting collective agreements and arrangements;
  • Handling human resources issues arising from mergers, acquisitions, corporate reorganizations, redundancies and insolvencies;
  • Adapting foreign law templates of our international clients or staff handbooks to comply with Israeli law and practice;
  • Drafting and adapting ESOPs and executive compensation programs;
  • Providing legal opinions and ongoing legal advice on all aspects of employment law, including privacy and data protection, discrimination and other unfair labour practices;
  • Advising on industrial disputes, including in cases of the budding union representation;
  • Acting as regulatory lawyers such as by obtaining work permits for foreign employees and advising on permits under other legislative requirements such as permits for time worked on the weekly rest and public holidays;
  • Advising on disputes with the regulator regarding employment conditions of public bodies which receive public funding and are subject to the supervision of the Ministry of Finance.

 

Recognition

  • Chambers Global 2024: “The team are very experienced. It’s obvious they enjoy a great deal of respect from the labor court judges, which enables them to hammer their points.”
  • Chambers Global 2022: “an outstanding labor and employment boutique firm that litigates and advises on a range of matters.”
    “Remarkable legal abilities and client service.”
    “The team is reliable, responsive and possesses broad experience in labour law.”
  • The Legal 500 2021: “S. Horowitz & Co is very active in matters related to the coronavirus pandemic, including terminations and social insurance benefits. It is also well versed in all forms of individual and collective employment disputes, and the employment aspects of corporate and commercial agreements.”
  • The Legal 500 2018: “S. Horowitz & Co. is instructed by corporates, employers’ unions and government entities and has experience in labour and employment disputes, corporate advisory work and multijurisdictional transactions.”