Yosef Samuel & Co.

Our firm was founded in 1940 by the late Attorney Yosef Samuel, a leader in the field of commercial law and real estate law in the country. Attorney Yosef Samuel volunteered in various public roles, including Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Aliyah Cooperative Credit Association Ltd. and Acting Chairman of the Bar Association's Appeals Tribunal in Israel.

In 1950, Attorney Shmuel (Sami) Samuel joined the firm as a partner and has been the senior partner to this day. Attorney Sami Samuel, a leading litigator in his field, served as Acting Head of the Bar Association for about 20 years and as a member of the Judges Selection Committee for 6 years.

Our firm currently comprises a team of 7 lawyers, headed by Attorneys Shmuel (Sami) Samuel (admitted in 1950), Alon Samuel (admitted in 1988), and Alon Avrahamov (admitted in 2004).

Our firm provides its clients with a variety of legal services in the commercial-civil field, with special expertise in diverse and complex real estate transactions and representation in courts at all levels, focusing on general litigation with an emphasis on real estate law, planning procedures, expropriations, and rental law.

Our firm has extensive professional capabilities and infrastructure alongside proven long-standing experience, providing solutions to a wide range of issues in the field of real estate and planning and construction for private clients, developers, and contractors, including initiating and changing master plans; representation in all planning institutions; representation of developers, contractors, and private individuals in real estate transactions and their financing; construction contracts, contracting, and construction supervision; agreements with consultants and planners; eviction lawsuits against intruders and tenants; tenant protection laws; rental laws; National Outline Plan 38; urban renewal; real estate transaction taxation; legal assistance in obtaining building permits; opposition to expropriations; representation in compensation claims under Section 197 of the Planning and Building Law and in expropriation compensation claims; representation in objections, appearances before appeal committees; representation in administrative petitions; general commercial law; corporate and partnership law; banking law; management of approximately 300 real estate assets for foreign residents and Israelis.

Our firm consistently sends all its lawyers to professional training in the firm's areas of practice, and several lawyers who have worked in our firm over the years currently serve as judges in the courts in the country.

As mentioned, our firm has specific expertise in real estate law, planning and construction law, rental law, and contracts in these areas and can provide high-level legal services with short response times.

Our firm has represented contractors in projects throughout Israel, including:

60 housing units in East Rishon Lezion, including legal handling in planning committees and courts to obtain project easements;
95 units in Ashkelon in the City neighborhood;
36 units in Kiryat Gat;
24 units in the Neve Avivim neighborhood in Tel Aviv;
12 units in the Bavli neighborhood in Tel Aviv;
32 units in Ramat Gan;

Currently, our firm is involved in several projects, including:

Organizing for the joint construction of 41 housing units in Tel Aviv by a group of landowners.
Releasing agricultural land for dense construction in the areas of Petah Tikva, Givat Shmuel, and Rishon Lezion.
2 urban renewal projects in the Ramat Gan and Tel Aviv areas.
National Outline Plan 38 projects in Ramat Gan and Kiryat Ono.

Our firm represents many foreign residents, requiring communication with clients in English, French, Spanish, and Bulgarian.

Our firm's belief is to achieve the best result for the client, emphasizing providing a solution with a comprehensive view, uncompromising professionalism, and the lawyer's integrity and professional honesty.

Since the firm's inception, we have been committed to providing our clients with high-level legal service, deep trust relationships with the client, and emphasizing the professional confidentiality of the attorney-client. Our firm is a boutique firm characterized by a family atmosphere. Despite the firm's growth over the years and the addition of non-family partners, there remains an atmosphere of cooperation, camaraderie, and mutual enrichment among the lawyers in the firm. In this context, the long-standing mutual cooperation with the accounting firm Samuel Langerman & Co., located adjacent to us since 1955, should be emphasized.

Our firm also views the legal profession as a source for disseminating knowledge and promoting community education, and therefore has taken upon itself to establish a scholarship fund in memory of the late Attorney Yosef Samuel, which annually awards scholarships to law students who combine prominent volunteer activity for the benefit of society with excellence in their studies. The fund is intended for third-year and above undergraduate law students and graduate students.

Below is an expansion of our firm's areas of practice:

Planning and Construction Law

Representing clients in proceedings with planning authorities in obtaining building permits; changing urban building plans, including legal support and representation in requests for permits for construction and exceptional use, drafting objections, and representation in objection committees, before a special investigator, representation in district and national planning committees, representation in district and national appeal committees;

Drafting petitions to the High Court of Justice, appeals, objections, and administrative petitions in various fields of planning and construction law (challenging the validity of plans, challenging planning procedures, betterment levies, building permits, etc.);

Initiating new master plans and initiating changes to existing master plans, including specific master plans in Tel Aviv, Petah Tikva, Rishon Lezion, and Bat Yam. The handling includes identifying planning needs, working with authorities and planners, drafting the plan's provisions, publishing for objections, and accompanying the planning procedures in various committees until publication for validation;

Handling tax aspects and compensation aspects resulting from the approval of plans, representing clients in compensation claims for land value depreciation under Sections 197 and 198 of the Planning and Building Law;

Representing defendants by authorities for construction without a permit or in exceptional uses;

Accompanying clients to internal and external organizational meetings;

Providing legal opinions;

Expropriations and Land Value Depreciation Due to Plan Validation

Representing in two-stage claims for compensation, initially in landowners' claims for value depreciation compensation with the publication of the plan affecting the land for change of use, and in the second stage, in expropriation compensation claims, with the issuance of expropriation orders.

Representing in claims to cancel expropriations that were not realized or in expropriations where public use of the land was discontinued. For example, the firm represented some of the petitioners in the Karasik High Court case (HCJ 360/96 Karasik, et al. v. Minister of Finance, et al.), where a groundbreaking decision was made by nine judges unanimously. It should be noted that the ruling in the Karasik case became a leading, innovative, and revolutionary precedent in the field of expropriation law, whereby for the first time, an expropriation of land that ceased public use after 40 years was canceled.

Real Estate Law

Representing private clients in diverse and complex real estate transactions (second-hand, from a contractor, administration, development authorities, combination, consideration, from a purchasing group, etc.) throughout the various stages, from negotiation, drafting the sale agreement, reporting to tax authorities, and completing the transaction with registration in the Land Registry.

Representing private developers, groups, and construction companies in residential apartment construction projects, including drafting a system of agreements with all planning and professional entities involved in the project (development authorities, developers, local authorities, landowners, contractors, construction supervisors, engineers, architects, consultants, etc.).

Tax planning for real estate transactions, solving real estate tax issues (capital gains tax, sale tax, purchase tax, property tax, betterment levy, and VAT) and representing taxpayers in appeal committees and courts and obtaining tax refunds. It should be noted that our firm works closely with the accounting firm Samuel Langerman & Co., enjoying ongoing consulting services in the field of individual and corporate income tax from accountants who are also experts in tax issues in corporate law and rental taxation.

Registration of condominium buildings and parcel registrations.

Representing apartment owners and developers/contractors in transactions according to National Outline Plan 38 and in urban renewal projects.

Representing in legal claims regarding the enforcement or cancellation of real estate transactions and the dissolution of partnerships in real estate.

Representing foreign investors in Israel and Israelis in real estate transactions abroad (Europe and South America).

Negotiating with banks and external financial companies in obtaining loans and financing for the purchase, construction, or development of real estate assets.

Rental

Managing and handling real estate assets rented in free rent or according to the Tenant Protection Law, including drafting rental agreements for apartments, offices, and shops, collecting funds, managing trust accounts, ongoing handling with authorities, tenants, and professionals.

Representing in courts in eviction claims against free and protected tenants and in collecting rental debts.

Providing General Diverse Litigation Services

Litigation in all instances: Magistrate, District, Supreme Court, and High Court of Justice, in planning and construction appeal committees, in tax appeal committees, and in the administrative court in all fields related to or concerning real estate assets, real estate contracts, planning and construction law, rental law, and expropriations.

Our firm has been involved in several important legal precedents, including:

HCJ 360/96 Karasik et al. v. Minister of Finance et al. - in which, for the first time, an expropriation of land used for public purposes for 40 years was canceled by nine judges unanimously. The ruling in the Karasik case is one of the most important precedents in the field of real estate law in the last 15 years and today serves as a basis for court rulings in the field of expropriations, in particular, and administrative law in general, and courts at all levels use and cite it in their rulings.

Following the Karasik High Court case, a legislative process was initiated, during which the Land Ordinance (Acquisition for Public Purposes) 1943 and other laws were amended. Attorney Alon Samuel was invited at the request of Knesset members and the request of the Chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee to provide his opinion on the proposed legislation and to participate in some of the Knesset committee discussions on these issues.

CA 4150/10 Nagar v. City of Rosh HaAyin (Supreme Court ruling on 27.07.11) - statute of limitations for a compensation agreement for expropriation of land that received the force of a judgment. The firm's success in convincing that an agreement that received the force of a judgment expires after 25 years like a judgment and is not subject to the regular 7-year statute of limitations.

CrimA 5633/93 State of Israel v. Omnipol and others - precedent in determining multi-purpose use designation for buildings constructed before 1940. In the ruling, the Supreme Court overturned a precedent it had previously set in the "Rosco" case.

CA 5814/90 Zilberstein v. Holding and Trust Company - precedent in the eviction of protected tenants of a business.

CA 295/93 Aharon Brothers Construction Company v. Ministry of Defense - precedent regarding the awarding of increased compensation for breach of a rental contract.

CA 156/82 Ida Lipkin v. Dor HaZahav - precedent regarding the right of restitution in a real estate sale contract under the Contracts Remedies Law when the real estate has already been transferred in the Land Registry.

Our firm is always at your service and would be pleased to hold an initial meeting to get to know our firm and discuss potential future collaboration with your company.