DUN'S 100 - 2016

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2016 | DUN’S 100 DUN’S 100 | 2015
DUN’S 100 | 2016 2016 | DUN’S 100
Business Services
Law Firms - Family Law
Varda Haklai Law Firm
Varda Haklai Law Firm is a boutique firm
with proven reputation, specializing in
family and inheritance laws. For over 30
years, the firmmade significant achievements and
contributed to changing the legal situation in family
and inheritance laws. The firm’s clients include key
players in the Israeli economy and their partners,
senior executives and well-known figures in the
fields of medicine, defense forces, finance, busi-
ness, etc. These clients benefit from Adv. Haklai’s
expertise, her many years of experience and her
understanding of the legal system, that together
with her knowledge of tangential areas (such as civil
and commercial laws) and her direct involvement
in each case, result in optimal legal outcomes. Adv.
Haklai is a well-known and experienced lawyer in
the field of family law, respected by clients, judg-
es and rabbinical court dayanim. Throughout the
years, Adv. Haklai acquired skills and knowledge in
tangential legal spheres such as corporate law, real-
estate law and more, expertise that are frequently
required inmany divorce disputes. Thanks to these
understandings, Adv. Haklai is able to leverage her
clients’ rights in divorce proceedings, or when re-
solving disputes in inheritance and estate cases.
Adv. Haklai is also highly experienced in many ar-
eas of conflict management, including disputes
over the division of career assets acquired during
a marriage; disagreements involving the manner
of assessing the value of companies or company
shares; exercising shares owned by one partner;
assessing and dividing the ‘earning capacity’ or
‘reputation’ of one partner when calculating entitle-
ment to child support, rehabilitation or adjustment
grant for the partner in an inferior economic situ-
ation, and more.
Adv. Varda Haklai
Adv. Haklai is a certified lawyer (85) and media-
tor (00). In addition to litigation in legal disputes,
Adv. Haklai also conducts mediation proceedings
in conflict resolution and in drafting prenuptial and
divorce agreements. During her years of profes-
sional practice, Adv. Haklai trainedmany lawyers in
family law, among themare lawyerswho have since
been appointed judges and are currently serving
in the courts. The law firm includes a professional,
skilled and experienced teamof lawyers, assisting
her in providing clientswith professional, effective
and purposeful legal consult.
Noteworthy Achievements
Adv. Haklai demonstrates uncompromising de-
termination in protecting her clients’ rights. This
determination led to significant triumphs in the
legal sphere. Over the years, Adv. Haklai managed
to set many precedents:
The Barel ruling (LCA 4358/01 Barel v Barel in the
Supreme Court) –This verdict was a direct result of
Adv. Haklai’s persistence on her client’s right to op-
pose her husband’s demands to selling their family
home with no connection to applying an overall
equitable division of property, including all their
other joint property. The ruling paved the way for
the practice of whereby dismantling the partner-
ship in the home is part of the equitable division of
property, so as to enable an overall view of all the
joint property and allow the ‘weakparty’ to exercise
all their rights to the property. This 2001 ruling is
still the basis of many court rulings today.
Jerusalem Family Court Ruling – In which the court
ordered to cancel a part of the divorce agreement
signed by the couple, after it was proven that the
husband concealed information fromhiswife about
the existence of a Swiss bankaccount in his name,
containing hundreds of thousands of dollars, de-
spite an explicit clause in the divorce agreement in
which each of the parties allegedlywaived all rights
managed by the other party’s name, known or un-
known (AC 18418-08-10 of September 1, 2013).
Ruling by the Ramat Gan Family Court – The court
rejected a lawsuit by awoman against her divorced
husband, 15 years after the divorce, in which she
petitioned for recognition of her rights to half of the
shares given to her ex-husband a year after they di-
vorced. The court rejected her claim that the shares
were given to her ex-husband thanks to his many
devoted years of workfor the company, during their
marriage. The court accepted Adv. Haklai’s argu-
ment that the shares were un-known at the time of
the divorce, andwere given to himafter the divorce
was finalized, as an incentive to keep working for
the company in the future. The court ruled that a
partner’s rights to the other’s career assets must
have been clearly acquired during themarriage.The
court completely accepted Adv. Haklai’s argument
that the shares in this case were given to her client
in respect of events that occurred after the divorce,
and therefore the ex-wife had no rights to half of
them (AC 51791/04 of August 17, 2009).
Ruling given by the Haifa Court – Inwhich a former
partner attempted to exploit the statutory regis-
tration of rights in an apartment that was jointly
registered in both partners’ names (50%-50%), by
accident. After a long and complex legal trial, the
court ruled that, as claimed by Adv. Haklai, the real
rights of the parties were 75%-25%, and that the
former partner’s attempts to claimotherwise verged
on exploitation of the proper legal proceedings in
bad faith (AC 41007-07-10 of May 19, 2013).
Ruling by the Tel Aviv District Family Court - Which
was a precedent-setting at the time, in which the
court cancelled the father’s liability to child support
for his 14 year-old son, after manyyears of attempts
made by the father and the welfare authorities to
initiate a relationship between him and his son.
The proceedings were conducted with maximum
sensitivity to the father’s painful situation, who ex-
pressed his wishes for a normal relationship with
his son. In the ruling, the court blamed the mother
for her responsibility, and for coming between the
father and his son. The court also ordered a reduc-
tion of child support for a fixed period, duringwhich
themother and child could change their alienating
behavior towards the father, ruling that if the lackof
engagement remains the child support would stop
completely, in an attempt to repair the parental con-
nection (AC 50547-05-10 of January 11, 2012).
Ruling given by the Rabbinical High Court on Janu-
ary 6, 2016 – In which the Rabbinical High Court
upheld a district court ruling binding a husband
to a NIS 360,000 marriage contract, despite all
his claims against the wife, Adv. Haklai’s client,
being mentally ill and having been thrown out of
the house by her. The court accepted Adv. Haklai’s
arguments and ruled that it was the husband that
caused the split, and therefore owed the sum from
the marriage contract (Case 1024191/1).
Esta b l i s h e d
1985
L i n e o f B u s i n ess
Family Law and Inheritance
3 Hanechoshet St., Ramat Hhayal, Tel Aviv
Tel: 972-3-6522620/1 ���
Fax: 972-3-6522623
Varda Haklai
Lawyer & Founder *
* See Top Executives Profiles - Page 582