Zeidman & Co. specializes in providing practical legal advice in the commercial, energy and infrastructure fields, and is one of Israel’s leading expert law firms in the field of management and accompaniment of construction, industrial and infrastructure projects.
The firm possesses particular rich expertise and knowledge, with an in-depth commercial and technical understanding of all operations in the entire value chain of the projects world – initiation, financing, procurement, engineering, execution and delivery.
We have gained extensive experience in accompanying tenders, conducting negotiations, and drafting complex and long-term commercial contracts, both local and international – BOT, PPP, Design-Build, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC and EPCM), operation and maintenance (O&M, LTSA), in the various formats: Turnkey Lump Sum/BOQ, Fast Track, creating cooperation (JV between on-shore and off-shore companies that approach projects together) and accompanying a variety of contracting methods, including shelf contracts, Repository, FIDIC, MATOC, Intel contracts and more.
Our firm’s unique advantage in this field goes well beyond representation during negotiations and contracting, in our ability to provide advanced solutions we tailor specifically to the project at hand, in and during the execution stage, and until the successful completion of the project.
The team’s experience in the field offers a very high technical and professional understanding of many issues related to the operation and execution of projects, alongside a quick and in-depth legal and commercial understanding of the events and cases in each project.
Our firm regularly accompanies project managers and execution managers and provides an immediate and in-depth response to a variety of issues related to project management – such as accompanying the handling of issues related to schedules, exceptions and change instructions, planning changes, lengthening of execution time and all commercial issues that arise during the project, and of course a quality response from a strategic perspective to the ongoing project letters.
Our rich background builds on decades of accumulated and diverse experience in this field – both working as in-house legal consultants in large and international engineering and projects companies, while closely accompanying the project at the worksites – and in legal representation as external consultants to some of the largest projects companies and the largest firms in Israel.
With accumulated experience from dozens of mega-projects totaling several billion dollars, and an in-depth knowledge in a particularly wide range of projects in Israel and abroad, Zeidman & Co. offers its professional advice in the diverse projects world:
- Conventional energy and cogeneration projects;
- Renewable energy projects (photovoltaic, wind, biogas, thermo-solar, geothermal);
- Complex and especially large construction projects, such as international development centers, academic campuses, commercial centers, etc.;
- Transportation infrastructure projects (roads, tracks, bridges, mass transit centers)
- Gas projects and chemical and biological treatment facilities, such as ammonia plants;
- Water projects (desalination, seaports, purification plants, etc.);
- Defense and military projects (including classified facilities as well as projects of the US Army COE);
- Technology and systems projects;
- Establishment of data centers, laboratories and high-tech production centers;
- Clean factories, and more.
The firm has extensive knowledge and experience in tailor-made legal representation and advice to the various stakeholders in the project, each according to its unique characteristics and needs: commissioners, developers, main contractors, financing bodies, design and engineering companies, supervisory companies, subcontractors for works and suppliers of equipment, electro-mechanics, technology and industrial systems, both local and global.
This in-depth familiarity with all legal, commercial and professional engineering aspects in the worlds of construction, infrastructures and systems provides Zeidman & Co. with the unique ability to provide our clients with the most effective professional and practical legal advice in each and every case, at each of the planning and execution stages of the project, in a variety of engineering, legal and commercial interfaces with its other stakeholders – while creating advantageous legal and commercial solutions that include an integrated response. Our added value encompasses the technical, professional and commercial challenges in the various disciplines in the project and the relevant legal and commercial complexities.
Basing on our rich experience, we are able to tailor the best accompaniment for each of our clients, in the ever-changing dynamics throughout the project, following a through consideration and evaluation of the risks and the arising commercial and legal opportunities, according to the context, stage and method of engagement.
In this framework, the firm advises both the company’s management and the project management on all matters pertaining to project management:
- Drafting contracts and engagements during the planning, procurement and construction stages, with a practical view of the execution process and familiarity with the end cases;
- Identification and management of professional, commercial and legal risks;
- Management of prolongation claims and schedules;
- Formulation of methodologies for damage mitigation;
- Management of negotiations, and ongoing engagements with suppliers and subcontractors during the project;
- Legal control of project processes to minimize exposure;
- Bridging gaps between technical understanding and commercial and legal understanding of ongoing events;
- Optimal preparation, in real time, for future exposures and claims;
- Identifying opportunities for submitting exceptions and claims;
- Editing and submitting exception requirements, based change instructions and handling delaying events;
- Highlighting the various contractual aspects among the project team and making conscious and optimal decisions in dealing with the customer and contractors;
- Protection in advance and prevention of agreed compensation demands and disclosures on the part of commissioners and contractors;
- Ongoing and efficient legal documentation of the various stakeholders’ moves and knowledge retention;
- Preparation of periodic commercial arrangements during project execution;
- Management of account submission and approval processes;
- Supporting dispute resolution processes and preventing legal proceedings;
- Control on behalf of management and owners over project execution;
- Comprehensive strategic management and accompanying disputes between commissioners, contractors and subcontractors;
- Assisting project managers in coordinating and handling project functions between the functions in the project: procurement, budget control, advanced aspects of schedules, commercial management;
- Providing high availability to the project team on an ongoing basis, for legal advice and immediate expert response from a business-commercial orientation;
- Close involvement throughout the planning and construction period – until the commercial operation of the project and during the inspection and maintenance periods.
Our high-quality, close legal support – from the very preliminary stages of initiation, tender submission and management, project financing and commercial engagements – streamlines and improves the commercial management of the project, which directly affects the project budget and the project’s profit line.
Contractor Claims
Our execution accompaniment expertise complements our service portfolio and enables our firm to provide in-depth legal-professional support in the field of construction claims, including accompanying various dispute clarification proceedings. By nature, contractor disputes are particularly complex, significantly costly and have a great impact on the responsibility of project stakeholders for schedules, changes and interruptions in execution stages, acceleration plans and alternatively on a decrease in efficiency and performance output.
These disputes have substantial financial implications for both the commissioners and the contractors, and include many professional, commercial and technical details, some of which are hidden from view. These claims require an in-depth understanding of the project’s course, and the ability to process raw data that can imply the delays throughout the project, the consequent changes in planning and execution, any budget deviations, and the division of responsibility, risk and remedies among the stakeholders.
Our firm specializes in locating, identifying, accompanying and resolving contractor claims, whether ongoing or retroactive, and knows how to “complete the puzzle” and produce quality legal products from complex technical and commercial materials, such as schedules, commissioners’ instructions and contractors’ notices. We assist our clients in defending claims and asserting their rights, both during the ongoing accompaniment and in the framework of dispute resolution relating to the construction and delivery phases of the project.
Our firm advocates resolving disputes and maximizing as much as possible the commercial-legal process between the parties, at the stage of achievement and engineering, commercial and professional discourse, fairly and collegially, with the best interests of the project in mind and with minimal impact on the interests of the parties.
When required, the firm has extensive experience in accompanying the process of clarifying and resolving disputes and leading compromise settlements, as well as in formulating outlines and steps that will enable the efficient work of the parties, while handling the eventual exposure during the execution of the project.
