Resilience Amid Unimaginable Horror: Story of Israeli IP Firm after October 7th & IP Attorney Amit Soussana's Enormous Heroism

The one Clause 8 story Law360 didn't want to share.

Voice of IP: More than six months have passed since the October 7th terrorist attack. The majority of Israelis taken hostage on that day are still being tortured by terrorists in Gaza. So, we’re taking a pause from the usual IP content to remember that by sharing an update about the story of IP attorney Amit Soussana. Eli interviewed Kfir Luzzatto - the managing partner of Amit’s firm Luzzatto and Luzzatto - on Clause 8 about Amit being held hostage.

Amit was one of the last two hostages that were released at the end of November. Shortly after, footage aired showing Amit singlehandedly fighting off a group of terrorists as they were taking her hostage. In the months that followed, many - including at least one member of Congress - started casting doubt on the documented atrocities committed by the terrorists in Gaza.

In response, Amit chose to be the first hostage to publicly speak about the extent of the horrors that she went through as a hostage. She has become a beacon of courage, strength, and painful - but necessary - eloquence for Israel.

Eli’s view: after more Jews were murdered on October 7th than any day since the Holocaust, I didn’t feel right just putting out another season of Clause 8. I wanted to find a way to tell the story in a way that was relevant even for those in the the IP community who weren’t closely following what happened on that day. So, when I heard about Amit being held hostage, I asked Kfir Luzzatto if he’d be willing to share Amit’s story and what his firm went and was going through. He graciously agreed. Although it’s one of the shortest Clause 8 episodes, it’s unsurprisingly the most powerful. If you haven’t listened to it already, I hope you take the time to do so now.

After the episode came out, I decided to also provide a write-up to Law360 based on the episode so that as many people as possible in the IP community could learn what Kfir shared about Amit. Law360 was always very eager to publish my write-ups based on previous Clause 8 episodes. But when I submitted the write-up for this episode, they took much longer than usual to respond on November 29th that “this falls outside our scope of business law coverage.” Amit was freed on November 30th.

Unfortunately, almost everything in that write-up remains relevant today. So, we’re now sharing it below - in its original form.

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The one Clause 8 story Law360 didn't want to share.

Resilience Amid Unimaginable Horror: Story of One Israeli IP Firm & Attorney Still Held Hostage

Amit Soussana is an IP attorney.  She is also one of more than 240 people – including babies, children, women, the elderly, and the disabled - who were brutally taken hostage by Hamas and other terrorists from Gaza on October 7^th.  More than 50 days later, almost all of them are still being held hostage.  

Kfir Luzzatto, the senior partner of Amit’s IP law firm Luzzatto & Luzzatto, sat down with Eli Mazour in a special episode of the Clause 8 podcast to talk about Amit, October 7th, and his firm’s path to “normality.”

Kfir’s father, Edgar, escaped the rise of fascism in Italy and joined the US Army to fight in World War II.  Edgar eventually made his way to Israel and reestablished his family’s IP firm there.  On October 7^th, Kfir was woken by a call from his daughter in Israel while he was away on a trip in Morocco.

“My daughter called me and said, ‘We are stuck here, we are waiting.  We don't know what's going on,” Kfir recalls.  “She has two little kids.  So, she was very frightened.  Being far away is probably the worst thing that you can have in a situation like that.”

Kfir was able to make it back to Israel through, coincidentally, Italy and started learning about the extent of the terror attacks on the “big family” that is his firm.

“About 300 or 400 people being killed at a rave; that's something that kind of defeats the imagination.  It takes a little while to internalize the thought of that.”  The grandson of a retired partner of Luzzatto was one of those murdered at that music festival on October 7^th, a day when more Jews were murdered than any day since the Holocaust.

Many of Luzzatto’s employees had to evacuate parts of Israel that were attacked.  “Some of them barely escaped with their lives.  Others were a little more fortunate and got away in time.”  They are now “scattered all over Israel because they cannot go back to where they live… a family of five or six living in a small hotel room.”

Kfir didn’t know what happened with Amit – a beloved employee of the firm – for weeks after the October 7^th attack.  She was home sick that day and messaged her family that the kibbutz where she lived was under attack.  Kfir feared that she had been killed. 

“[O]ne of the horrors,” Kfir says of what the terrorist did, is that “many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition.”

Twenty days later, Amit’s family was informed she was kidnapped.  Everyone who knows Amit is now anxiously waiting for her to come home.  Kfir has also made sure that the firm keeps fully functioning.

“Some of us have to be strong so we can strengthen others.  Obviously, we think about her all the time,” Kfir says.

A few more excerpts from the interview, which have been edited for clarity and context, are provided below.

Amit

Amit is the nicest person.  Besides being a very good lawyer and doing a wonderful job - many of us used to rely on her all of the time, she's also a great person.  Surely, I’d have been in shock if anybody else was abducted. But with her it's particularly difficult.  Amit is someone that connects with everybody.  So it's very heartfelt in the firm and everywhere.   I get phone calls every day from people saying, “Oh, I just heard, I'm in shock.”

She impresses people and people remember her.  So, it's more difficult to imagine what she's going through because we know her so well.

Hostages’ families

What's happening to Amit herself is horrific but what's happening to her family is no less horrific.  The families who are not hostages are, in fact, also hostages.  What they're going through is maybe even worse mentally – obviously, not physically and not practically.   People tend to forget that the families are victims.  Going for so long without knowing what's going to happen and not knowing if their sons or daughters are alive or not alive is probably the worst thing that may happen to anybody.  So, we need to look at the families and treat them as victims.  

Efforts to raise awareness in legal community

We’ve been in touch with bar associations all over the world.  Obviously with the Israeli Bar Association, and they're doing a lot of work.  Just today I received a notice that the French Bar Association have put together a big dinner, and they will be putting empty chairs at each table for the people that are being held in Gaza, including one for Amit. 

Israel’s war for survival and the West

I saw 290,000 people in Washington, DC.  That's something.  And when you see that, I think it's a good thing essentially that the world is waking up because people are starting to realize that our war is the West’s war.  We are the last bastion.  If they were able - they will not be able to - but if they were able to win and destroy us, you will be next in line.

Israel has gone through a lot of hardship over the years.  And we always pulled through and we will put through this time too.  Obviously, the price is high.  But the good news is we don't have a choice.  It's different when you have a war where you have a choice whether to go to war or not to go to war.  We don't have a choice - it's live or die, essentially.  And, we are not planning on dying.  So, we have to go on and win this war.