Shai Bakal

Shai Bakal heads the firm’s Competition/Antitrust group.

Shai’s practice covers all areas of antitrust law and regulation. He regularly advises and represents leading corporations in Israel and abroad with respect to complicated antitrust matters, including complex mergers, joint ventures, restrictive trade practices and abuse of dominant position proceedings. He is well acquainted with the different sectors of the Israeli economy, particularly the food, energy, retail, and banking sectors. Shai has created and implemented antitrust compliance programs for large Israeli companies and multinational corporations. Shai advises leading suppliers and retailers in Israel with respect to the recently-enacted food sector law as well as leading conglomerates regarding the new anti-concentration law.

Shai successfully represents clients in complex antitrust litigation before the Competition Tribunal and in civil litigation, including class actions and appeals before the Supreme Court. In addition, Shai has represented clients before various Israeli regulators, as well as in administrative petitions to the Israeli Supreme Court.

Lauded among international legal ranking directories including Chambers, Legal 500 and Who's Who Legal, Shai is hailed by Chambers Global as "a very knowledgeable and a good negotiator who really keeps his composure".

Prior to joining the firm, Shai practiced law in the legal department of the ICA (2002-2007), where he was in charge, among others, of the food sector, retailing, and intellectual property. He was later appointed as the head of the ICA’s mergers team, where he participated in the International Competition Network’s subgroup for merger investigative techniques. During his term at the ICA, Shai drafted several key policy documents, including the “Antitrust Commissioner’s Premerger Filing Guidelines” and the “Antitrust Commissioner’s Position on Commercial Arrangements among Suppliers and Retail Chains”.

Shai is also a lecturer at Tel Aviv University in the area of antitrust law, and particularly the interface between IP, innovation, and antitrust.

Shai’s notable work highlights include:

• • representation of one of the largest banks in Israel before the Antitrust Tribunal in an appeal on the IAA’s determination regarding alleged information exchange between banks.
  • representation of a multinational conglomerate headquartered in Germany regarding the alleged GIS cartel.
  • representation of oil and gas exploration and production firm regarding the Leviathan natural gas field.
  • representation of a prominent Israeli firm before the Supreme Court in an appeal over the Antitrust Tribunal decision regarding the acquisition of the One Plaza shopping center.
  • representation of the largest multinational pharmaceutical companies regarding a 3-part merger transaction with another major multinational pharmaceutical company.
  • representation of a multinational pharmaceutical company regarding a proposed multi-billion dollar acquisition of another multinational pharmaceutical company.
  • representation of the newspaper with the highest daily circulation in Israel regarding its high-profile acquisition of an Israeli daily newspaper.