Greenberg Traurig is set to become one of the first major US law firms to open an office in Israel, with the firm yesterday (6 December) announcing plans to open in Tel Aviv next month, writes the Am Law Daily.

The Tel Aviv office will initially be staffed by partners who will spend large chunks of time there without permanently relocating, according to Greenberg chief executive Richard Rosenbaum. The firm then intends to hire up to five US or UK-trained lawyers to staff the office full time.

Global corporate and securities chair Gary Epstein has been spearheading the initiative and will be among those spending time in the new office.

The Greenberg lawyers in Tel Aviv will not practice Israeli law, and will focus on advising clients- many of them in the technology, pharmaceutical, clean energy, and manufacturing industries-on matters ranging from financing and intellectual property to mergers and acquisitions and employment issues.

The launch comes around a decade after Greenberg first started doing work in Israel in the wake of the dot-com and telecom busts. It now works with Israeli clients including Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, OrSense, Redhill Biopharma, Beeologics, Fortissimo Capital, Gazit-Globe, and Lumenis.

Miami firm Greenberg, which now has around 1,800 lawyers, claimed tenth place on The Am Law 100 rankings this year, with gross 2010 revenue of $1.2bn (£768.8m) and profits per partner of $1.3m (£833,000).

According to Rosenbaum the firm has never been overly concerned with global expansion. Its only other offices outside the US are in Amsterdam, Shanghai, London, and Mexico City, with the firm also having strategic alliances with two Italian firms.

"Mostly we have gone where our clients and our business have strategically taken us-[Israel] is an example," Rosenbaum says of the firm's international offices. "It's not something on every firm's list of places they want to be, but for us it made sense."