Dr. Ophir Nave

Dr. Ophir Nave is co-head of the firm’s Cross Border and Domestic M&A practice group.

Ophir is consistently recognized as one of the top M&A lawyers in Israel by the leading international ranking agencies, including Legal 500, Chambers Global, and Who’s Who Legal. Ophir and his practice group are regularly involved in the largest M&A transactions in the Israeli market. In recent years, Ophir has represented:

• • Rafael Defense Systems in its acquisition of fifty percent of a leading Israeli vision technology company, VisionMap.
  • Glilot Capital, the major shareholder of an Israel-based security solutions provider Aorato, in its acquisition by Microsoft.
  • Rafael Defense Systems, in its acquisition of fifty percent of a leading Israeli sonar technology company, DSIT.
  • Adicet Bio, a U.S. bio-tech company, in its stock-for-stock transaction with AIT, an Israeli leading bio-tech company in the field of cancer research.
  • The Kearfott Corporation, a leading inertial system U.S. company, in its acquisition, together with a leading Israeli defense company, of Al Cielo, an Israeli company specializing in navigation and control inertial sensors.
  • PMC Sierra in its acquisition of the Israeli company Wintegra, constituting the largest sale of an Israeli hi-tech company during such year.

Ophir also worked for many years as an M&A attorney with the leading M&A law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York. During this time, Ophir represented, among many others:

• • Phillip Morris International in its acquisition of Cigatam (Carlos Slim’s tobacco company in Mexico) for an enterprise value of approximately USD 4 billion.
  • Bausch & Lomb in its sale transaction to the PE firm Warburg Pincus for approximately USD 4.5 billion.
  • Danaher Corp. in its acquisition of Sybron Dental Specialties Inc. for approximately USD 2 billion.
  • The controlling shareholder of GVT in its sale transaction to Vivendi SA for an enterprise value of approximately USD 4.2 billion.
  • Cardinal Health Inc. in its spin-off transaction of CareFusion Corporation (currently traded for approximately USD 12 billion).

Ophir is a graduate of Harvard Law School (Doctor of Juridical Science), Tel Aviv University (LLB, valedictorian) and the Technion (BSc. Computer Engineering, valedictorian).

Ophir clerked for Justice Theodor Or of the Israeli Supreme Court, and was a recipient of various prizes and scholarships, including the Wolf Foundation Prize, the John M. Olin Fellowship, the E. David Fischman Scholarship, the Tel Aviv University Academic Excellence Scholarship and the Technion Presidential Prize.

Ophir also served as the Editor of the Tel Aviv University Law Review, lectured at Harvard Law School on corporate law matters, has published articles on corporate matters in the leading legal journals in the United States and currently serves as an adjunct professor of corporate finance at Tel Aviv University.

Earlier in his career, Ophir was an M&A partner at the Israeli law firm Herzog Fox & Neeman.