Oded Har-Even
Oded Har-Even graduated magna cum laude from the class of 1999. “My legal thinking was shaped during those years. I remember that classes in Contracts, Criminology, Constitutional Law and Hebrew law were particularly interesting” says Oded. “Micha Fetman, who was our teaching assistant in Criminal Law, told us in our first session together that he hopes we don’t start thinking like lawyers too much, because this might be a problem”.
While visiting his sister in the U.S Oded met his future wife and decided to sit for the New York bar exam. After that he applied for a joint LL.M. and finance degree at NYU. Upon graduation, Oded worked for nearly 2 years in the NY office of a major Canadian law firm and in 2004 he joined ZAG/S&W, an international joint venture firm owned by Zysman Aharoni & Gayer (ZAG) of Tel Aviv and Sullivan & Worcester (S&W) in the U.S. Since 2007 Oded has been serving as Managing Director of ZAG/S&W, helping to transform it into the leading law firm for Israelis in the U.S in the fields of technology, life sciences and banking.
Each lawyer in the joint venture serves as counsel to both firms. Out of 200 attorneys in the U.S an average of 120 are working on joint venture cases every year. Running a joint venture is an intricate business; each client is assigned a specialized team and success depends on their team work.
Mr. Har-Even specializes in counseling Israeli companies traded in the U.S. focusing on M&A, debt and equity financing, cross-border transactions, corporate governance, disclosure and compliance matters. He has been involved in numerous public offerings of Israeli companies in Wall Street as counsel either to the issuer or the underwriter. In 2013, Har-Even led nearly half of the public offerings of newly listed Israeli companies on Nasdaq during that year.
Oded Har-Even’s clients range from governmental entities to start-up companies. Prior to joining ZAG, Har-Even was one of the pioneer Israeli attorneys working with China “back when you actually had to explain how China was important”. Today ZAG holds a joint venture in China for advising Chinese companies with respect to mergers, acquisitions and raising capital in U.S markets. Har-Even also assists foreign investors in their China operations and investments. He has been involved in various real estate transactions acting on both legal and financial matters.
Oded is married to Orit and is a father of three. He enjoys traveling and bike riding. He was a Captain in the IDF and is heavily involved in various public affairs matters and organizations promoting Jewish education in the U.S. and building an active Israeli community across America.
