It would be strange to expect from a practicing attorney objectivity in the issue put forward in the heading of this section. Therefore, I do not pretend to be completely objective and consider my duty fulfilled if, in fact, I will answer you the question: when and why it is necessary to choose the lawyers of our college ... and when - not. So, the criteria for choosing a lawyer.

 

Israeli education

 

Advocacy is the most “territorial” specialty and science: for example, a programmer or pianist will remain so in Africa, but an advocate outside the country where he practices and has a lawyer license is not an advocate. The legal systems of different countries can be very different - for example, Russian law relates to the continental, and Israeli to Anglo-American. Therefore, Israeli lawyers with an Israeli education have a tangible advantage over their colleagues who have studied abroad - even in Cambridge and the Sorbonne. And specialists https://pz-law.co.il/en/blog-en/business-visa-b5-for-us-citizens/ may well help US citizens get a business visa for work and residence in Israel. Of course, if a legal problem affects aspects of the law of several countries (in our practice, most often in the post-Soviet space and the United States), then a foreign legal education can be very useful - and therefore both Russian lawyers and lawyers are at the service of our office clients ,

 

In Israel, a law degree can be obtained at a university or college. Universities are trying to instill in their students a broad vision of jurisprudence and an understanding of its deep currents; colleges place a greater emphasis on practical issues. The leading Israeli law schools are Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, their debate over the palm of their hands is almost like a Cambridge-Oxford regatta, I myself, as a graduate of Tel Aviv University, have my own biased point of view on this issue.

 

Conclusion : make sure your lawyer is educated in the country whose laws will decide your case.

 

Specialization Areas

 

The time has passed when a lawyer could have an equally good understanding of all legal issues - today there is no more in common between a criminal lawyer and a patent law specialist than between a dentist and a gynecologist. A lawyer who is ready to tackle any business, either an almost unique genius, or a fighter for a piece of bread suitable for any business as follows: "first, take the fee, and then try to understand what it is about." Lawyers, unlike doctors, do not have an official and formal specialization, therefore, formally, any lawyer can deal with any field of law. Specialists can help distinguish:

 

• work experience "on the other side of the barricade", in the relevant official structures - the tax inspectorate, prosecutor's office, police, etc.

• additional education - the magistrate, in contrast to the first degree, may be specialized

• the practice of conducting such cases in the past - find out if the lawyer is going to acquire your first experience in your case

 

Conclusion : look for narrow specialists with wide knowledge of

 

work

 

Experience of the lawyer consists of two main components:

 

• the number of years in the Israeli market

• the number of similar cases

 

Today it’s quite normal to find out from the lawyer both of the above issues, and you should not be shy about looking for an experienced specialist. On the other hand, asking a lawyer about the percentage of successfully completed cases is practically meaningless - the range of cases is very wide even in a narrow area of ​​law, and the criteria for success are very vague. If you focus on the percentage of success, then in the end you will choose not a professional, realistic and modest modest lawyer, but the best specialist in rubbing glasses for others and yourself.

 

Conclusion : choose a lawyer according to his experience, and not according to the height of the air locks that he builds. For example https://pz-law.co.il/en/

 

Fame A

 

fame attorney promises us two things:

 

• he is always in sight, and if you haven’t heard anything bad about him, that means he isn’t noticed in anything

• gaining fame takes time and takes energy, so a well-known specialist most likely considers himself to be a long-distance runner, which reduces the risk that he will let you down or run away with your money

 

On the other hand, you have to pay for the pleasure. A well-known lawyer has more clients, so he is more picky in choosing cases, and demands - and receives - higher fees.

 

Conclusion : choose well-known lawyers ... if your case justifies it and you can afford it.

 

Office staff

 

Today, legal battles are not reminiscent of a duel, but rather a wall-to-wall battle, so the size of the staff of the bar association is crucial. Even the most professional lawyer has no more than 24 hours in a day. A college with five lawyers can accumulate exactly five times more man-hours, and work with information faster by the same five times. Therefore, a loner is obviously in a very losing position.

 

Mastodon offices also have their drawbacks:

 

• the fee is assigned according to the tariff of the head of the office, and your referent will most often be one of the hired lawyers, at best one of the junior partners, and this referent will change periodically, so building long-term relationships will be very difficult

• large offices resemble a conveyor belt, where you will be one of hundreds of clients, so the level of personal attention to your case will be proportionally lower.

 

Sometimes there is no alternative to working with a large bar of lawyers - first of all, when it represents your opponent, or when you need to give out very quickly mountain is a large amount of legal work. And here you can combine the advantages of both worlds - a boutique collegium will coordinate work with you and serve as a link between you and a large collegium, coordinating its work and providing you with the required level of personal involvement and interest.

 

Conclusion : the bar association, like clothes, must be selected according to size.

 

Office location

 

Payment of office rent is a very significant expense item of any bar association. If the lawyer is huddled in a small office or if his office is located in an unpresentable building or in a third-rate district, this suggests that he cannot afford more for the fees he received. On the other hand, the office, screaming about the money invested in it, evokes associations with one-day butterflies. In addition, for all the excesses, someone eventually has to pay, and the client prefers to pay for the work of a lawyer, rather than his chic office.

 

Conclusion : everything is good in moderation.

 

Fee amount

 

The size of the fee says nothing about the professionalism of a lawyer! Often, it is an unprofessional lawyer that requires an overpriced fee, either because it cannot correctly assess the required amount of work, or because there are few clients, and everyone wants to squeeze every penny.

 

Experience really shows that good things are more expensive than bad ones, but the high price does not yet turn plastic jewelry into real jewelry.

 

Conclusion : pay a lawyer a lot ... but only if he is really worth it.

 

Payment by results.

 

I left the most important moment for dessert.

 

The law does not always allow a lawyer to receive a fee proportional to the result - for example, in a criminal proceeding it is impossible to tie the size of the fee to the number of "saved" years in prison. But this is an exception, not a rule.

 

In most of the cases that our board is dealing with - issues of corporate and international law, civil and commercial litigation, receiving compensation for injuries in the army and in road accidents, lawsuits against the Ministry of Internal Affairs, solving Israeli army problems abroad. The client is not at all interested in the amount of work done, and he can evaluate its quality only retroactively, by the result.

 

Taking the entire fee forward is all the more problematic, not to say immoral, because the client cannot assess the chances of success, and the lawyer, on the contrary, can:

 

• if these chances are great, then there is no reason to take the majority of the fee in advance

• if they are low, then the lawyer should not waste the client’s money, even on himself

• and if the lawyer cannot evaluate these chances at least approximately, then he’d better not come near to such a case

 

Any client wants to know how confident the lawyer is in the success of his case, and there is only one way to find out in fact - to check the lawyer's willingness to receive payment for the result, and not for work. Yes, in this case, the fee will be higher, because the lawyer takes the risk, but in this way the client immediately cuts off those lawyers who are ready to work, just to work, without faith in success.