In an interesting development, JMB & Co., Jerusalem’s largest Patent Attorney firm, established in 1995, and Fa©tor Patent Attorneys, my relatively new firm, set up at the end of 2004, have merged. The combined firm, to be called JMB, Fa©tor & Co. will include some 10 patent attorneys with diverse backgrounds, and 4 or 5 attorneys-at-law.
JMB & Co. has build up a solid reputation over the past thirteen years, and has established a major patent practice, representing multinational corporations such as Genentech, Smithkline Beecham, Siemens, Wellstat and Sumitomo, and a large trademark practice with many big name clients including Google, Sony, Carebears, BenQ and the like.
Despite setting up only at the end of 2004, Fa©tor Patent Attorneys works for many of Israel’s biggest companies, including Isscar, Lipman, Israel Aircraft Industries and Huliot amongst her many clients.
When asked the rationale behind the merger, Jeremy Ben David, the major shareholder in and managing partner of JMB & Co., pointed out an increasing professional cooperation between the two merging firms, particularly in various high-tech fields such as computer image analysis and data encryption, and that the merger strengthens the physics, materials, computing, electronics and engineering capabilities of the firm.
When asked the same question, Factor pointed out that JMB & Co. includes a wealth of highly experienced practitioners such as Dr. Stanley Davis who is one of Israel’s leading chemical and pharmaceutical attorneys with a career spanning half a century, Moshe Ben Porat who is an authority on International Trademark law and practice and Shimon Shalit, a former senior Examiner, who is an expert on Israel Patent and Trademark Law and Procedures.
The managing partner of the combined firm will be Jeremy Ben-David. Factor pointed out that quite apart from Jeremy Ben-David’s track record of building up and running a growing IP firm for the past 15 years, Jeremy is a civil engineer by training, and, according to Dr. Factor, the discipline gives a holistic perspective ideal for running a company where everything from the unseen foundations to the facade have to work together.
The three partners, Dr. Stanley Davis, Mr. Jeremy Ben David and Dr. Michael Factor were all born and educated in the UK and share common values and culture. All three are religiously observant and Zionist, committed to Torah values, the Western Liberal democratic tradition and academic openness. The three share a dry, English humour, and occasionally, a fine single malt.
Both Ben-David and Factor were born and brought up in North West London, attended the same schools in London, were active in the Bnei Akiva youth movement, spent time in hesder yeshivot before College, made Aliya and served in the IDF. The common culture spills over into the business arena, where both the merging offices are characterized by quiet, calm, hard-working atmospheres.
The combined force includes three patent attorneys who, in addition to science and/or engineering degrees also have law degrees. Notably, all the professional staff and much of the support staff have English as mother-tongue. Whilst it is immediately clear that the staff are highly qualified professionals, there is also a common culture, with a daily Mincha service in the Jerusalem office.
For law graduates abroad with an interest in Israel and an appetite for moving abroad to seek new adventures, it is interesting to know of firms such as yours. I would strongly encourage you to consider recruiting in centres such as London, Paris, New York, and Toronto, by participating in campus recruitment.
There you could recruit those who would make excellent additions but who would not, without prompting, have dreamt up or considered an opportunity somewhat off the straightforward track of on-campus interviews by well-known firms plying their trade in major cities.
Recruits would no doubt require training in Hebrew and Israeli law. However, I suspect that excellent academic qualifications and strong motivation will enable them to more than overcome this disadvantage and to become strong assets in the medium term. After all, such candidates are by definition ones with a particular incentive to enter the Israeli labour market. In other words, they are candidates available to you, compared to local candidates, at a discount.