ASC Law Office

AKSU ÇALIŞKAN BEYGO ATTORNEY PARTNERSHIP (“ASC Law”) is a leading full-service Turkish law firm uniquely organized into consultancy, dispute resolution and debt collection and enforcement departments. Bringing together nearly 90 highly-qualified lawyers, with approximately 200 total employees, ASC Law has been serving domestic and international clients since its founding in 2001.

ASC Law has extensive experience in the structuring of complex, high-value transactions, as well as handling some of Türkiye’s most highly-contested disputes. As such, ASC Law represents a variety of major corporations, banks and financial institutions located in Türkiye and abroad from such diverse sectors as, among others, banking, finance, energy (including renewables such as hydro, wind, biomass and solar), telecommunications, real estate, construction, transportation and retail.

Many of the matters ASC Law handles, whether transactional or litigation, involve cross-practice efforts – eg, where lawyers from the firm’s three departments work together – so as to take full advantage of the firm’s deeply-experienced, multi-disciplinary, professionals.

Consultancy department
The following practice areas fall under the umbrella of ASC Law’s 25-lawyer-strong, including apprentices, consultancy department.

Banking, finance and capital markets: Part of ASC Law’s consultancy department, our banking, finance and capital markets practice are among Türkiye’s strongest. Our clients include, on the lending side, international and domestic banks and other financial institutions, including among others Ziraat Bank, Türkiye’s largest public bank, İs Bank, Türkiye’s largest private bank, Standard Chartered Bank, a prominent UK-based international bank and Unicredit Bank AG, one of Germany’s largest banks. On the borrower side, ASC Law clients include several of Türkiye’s most important conglomerates and their related companies, including Anadolu Holding.

ASC Law is particularly proud of its involvement in the Turkcell Shareholder Restructuring, which was recognized, and rightfully so, by CEE Legal Matters as Türkiye’s 2020 “Deal of the Year”. In the engagement, which brought together in a single transaction several of ASC Law’s core banking and finance expertises, ASC Law took the lead role as both: (i) counsel for Ziraat Bank, the “Lead Arranger”, which involved more than US$2bn in restructured and original financing; and (ii) counsel for the most important Party to the restructuring itself, the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Türkiye.

Project finance and development – infrastructure and energy: ASC Law’s consulting department provides advice on all aspects related to the financing of infrastructure projects, often representing the lead lender in consortiums made up of Turkish and/or foreign financial institutions. ASC Law is also expert in the negotiation and documentation of large infrastructure projects, having particular expertise in FIDIC-based transactional documents. ASC Law’s engagements with regard to the above encompasses, among others, projects related to both transportation and energy infrastructure, including more recently important energy projects involving renewables, whether biomass, geothermal, hydroelectric, solar or wind power.

Notable ASC Law engagements include the negotiation and finalization, in 2015, of the Host Government Agreement between the Russian Project Company and the Republic of Türkiye for Türkiye’s $16.3bn Sinop Nuclear Power Plant Project. More recently, our lawyers prepared the project documentation for the construction of a wind-power plant and biomass-power plant on behalf of a German client, for a solar-power plant for a Turkish client and for a high-value underground natural gas storage facility on behalf of Turkish clients.

Corporate, commercial and M&A: ASC Law’s consultancy department provides a wide range of corporate and commercial law, as well as M&A and related consultancy services. With regard to corporate law, ASC Law provides advice about, and assists in establishing, the appropriate legal entities from which both Turkish and foreign clients are to conduct their Turkish operations. These services include establishment of branches and liaison offices and the preparation of the required corporate foundational documentation, such as articles of incorporation, bylaws and the necessary resolutions. ASC Law is also busy working with its clients with regard to the maintenance of all required corporate formalities, including arranging and documenting shareholder, general assembly and board of director meetings.

Perhaps more importantly, ASC Law is deeply involved in providing legal advice regarding the day-to-day operation of its clients’ businesses. This commercial work includes, to name a few, the negotiation and preparation of construction, distributorship, employment, franchising, licensing, marketing, purchase and sale, service, supply and transportation agreements and other related documentation.

Last, but certainly not least, ASC Law has a robust M&A practice, with extensive experience in conducting detailed legal due diligence, and preparing, examining and negotiating share/asset purchase-sale agreements and shareholders agreements, along with additional required commercial, financial and operational documents.

Dispute resolution department
ASC Law’s approximately 60 dispute resolution lawyers, including apprentices, handle several thousand active dispute resolution matters, and make more than 100 court appearances/week. At the same time, the total amount of damages at issue in matters the dispute resolution department handles has increased severalfold over the course of the past few years. These excellent numbers correspond, not coincidentally, with managing partner Mr Doğan Coşgun – then chief legal officer of Türk Telecom, Türkiye’s most important telecommunications companies – joining us in 2017 to head the department.

Arbitration and local litigation: ASC Law’s dispute resolution department represents clients, whether as plaintiff or defendant, in all manner of disputes, including: (i) before Turkish regulatory agencies, including in administrative investigations and hearings, as well as before Türkiye’s administrative courts; (ii) before Türkiye’s local commercial, civil, criminal and probate courts; (iii) in commercial and investment arbitration matters before such forums as the ICC and ISTAC (Türkiye’s international arbitration centre); (iv) in efforts to settle emerging disputes before resort to more formal dispute resolution is necessary, including use of mediation (with several of our lawyers licensed as Mediators); and (v) in efforts to avoid exposure to liability through, for example, the careful preparation of agreements and other documentation, as well as the design of proper internal controls.

Other sophisticated disputes handled by the firm include, among others, ones related to intellectual property, telecommunications, expropriation/eminent domain, and electricity trading and energy-sector-related derivatives.

Debt collection and enforcement: ASC Law’s debt collection and enforcement department is involved in all aspects of debt collection and enforcement, starting with pre-litigation collection efforts, using our 100-plus employee Call Centre and then – if no satisfactory resolution is reached – involving Türkiye’s debt collection offices and courts.

The department represents a large portfolio of Turkish and international clients, made up of both creditors and debtors, and includes, among others, banks, telecom operators, internet service providers, utility service providers, and lease and factoring entities. In 2020 alone, the department handled total outstanding debt in excess of TL400m (US$30m).