A business owner served with a closure order. A developer who has invested in a project and discovers that the planning authority is about to reject the plan. A property owner facing enforcement over building or use carried out without a permit. In each of these, a decision by a single authority may determine the future of a business, a project or an asset.
The response does not necessarily begin in court. It often begins before the local committee, the appeals committee, at a hearing before the licensing authority, or in the first reply to a demand from an inspector. Acting correctly at that stage may change the decision, or build the foundation for the legal proceeding that follows.
Ilan Bombach & Co. represents developers, property owners, business people, companies, local authorities and public bodies in planning and building proceedings, business licensing, and administrative and criminal enforcement.
Planning and building
- Building permits and non-conforming use: representation in licensing proceedings before local and district committees, including applications for permits, variances and non-conforming use.
- Plans, objections and appeals: filing objections to plans, representation before planning institutions and appeals committees, and challenging decisions before the Administrative Affairs Courts.
- Building violations and enforcement: representation in proceedings concerning stop-work orders, cessation-of-use orders, demolition orders, fines and indictments.
- Expropriation and compensation for loss in value: representation in expropriation proceedings, compensation claims, and claims arising from a reduction in land value following the approval of a plan.
- Petitions and interim relief: administrative petitions and applications to stay execution or for interim relief where urgent action is needed to preserve the existing position.
Business licensing
- Obtaining and renewing business licences: representation and assistance before licensing authorities and approval bodies, from the initial application through to the grant of a licence or permit.
- Refusal, cancellation or revocation of a licence: representation in hearings, objections and petitions against decisions to refuse, cancel or decline to renew a licence, or to impose restrictive conditions.
- Closure orders and enforcement: handling administrative and judicial orders and urgent proceedings intended to prevent the closure of a business or to have an order set aside.
- Dealing with multiple regulators: addressing obstacles arising with the municipality, the police, the Israel Fire and Rescue Authority, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and other approving bodies. Sometimes the objection of a single body holds up the entire licensing process, and the source of the blockage has to be identified and dealt with directly.
More than three decades of experience
The firm is led by Ilan Bombach, one of Israel's leading litigators, with over 30 years of experience and many hundreds of appearances before the Supreme Court. He has represented the Government of Israel, Knesset committees, local authorities, public bodies, companies and developers in complex administrative and constitutional proceedings.
He has held a series of public offices, including Deputy Chair of the Central Elections Committee, acting chair of the council of the National Road Safety Authority, and chair of appeals committees. These roles gave him direct familiarity with how public committees work, how decisions are reached within them, and the institutional considerations that guide them.
In representation before planning institutions and licensing authorities, that familiarity helps identify who holds the power to decide, what professional record is required, which considerations the authority may properly take into account, and when a defect in the process justifies an appeal or judicial intervention.
Personal involvement of the head of the firm
In planning, building and business licensing, the first approach to an authority may shape everything that follows. A document not filed, an argument not raised at a hearing, or delay in lodging an appeal can narrow the options later available to the client.
Ilan Bombach personally leads the substantive stages — from examining the planning or licensing position, through approaches to authorities, objections, hearings and appeals, to administrative petitions, criminal proceedings and applications for interim relief.
Even where the firm is approached only after an application has been refused, an order has been issued or enforcement proceedings have begun, it is still necessary to examine the authority's jurisdiction, the fairness of the process, the factual record and the applicable time limits for an objection, appeal or petition. The available options depend heavily on the stage the matter has reached, which is why early assessment is particularly important.
