Gün + Partners

gun.av.tr

Managing Associate Asena Aytuğ Keser has been with the firm since 2011 and is a managing associate. Her practice focuses on dispute management; business crime and anti-corruption; employment; insurance and reinsurance; administrative, tax and regulatory and construction and real estate. Asena advises and represents both national and international clients in various commercial and corporate disputes before courts and arbitral tribunals, including high profile compensation cases, M&A and shareholders disputes, real estate and construction disputes and enforcement of foreign court judgments and arbitral awards. She has a specific focus on business crimes and she handles various disputes where the dispute contains the application of both civil and criminal law principles. Asena also represents many clients in regulated markets and her experience in dispute management also expands to administrative and tax law related disputes. She is also experienced in employment law. She provides consultancy and represents clients in relation to a wide range of employment law issues including preparation and negotiation of employment contracts, terminations, personnel management, reemployment and unjust competition actions. Combining her experience in dispute management with insurance law, Asena focuses on the litigation aspect of the firm’s insurance & reinsurance practice. She represents and advises many clients in both local and London insurance market, loss adjusters, international law firms and brokers for handling and management of disputes concerning various types of insurance, carrying out settlement processes, assessment of claim amount and liability of respected parties as well as of policy coverage.

Aysel Korkmaz Yatkın

Partner Aysel Korkmaz Yatkın joined the firm in 2008 and became a partner in 2020. She specializes in intellectual property; insurance and reinsurance; dispute management and business crimes and anti-corruption practices with a special focus on patents and utility models. With almost 15-years of experience on patents, she has been providing consultancy on all matters related to the patent law and has been leading numerous patent actions. With a vast advisory and litigation expertise particularly with regards to protection of patent rights, Aysel Korkmaz Yatkın also represents various pharmaceutical companies before the Ministry of Health in relation to the regulatory matters and gives support to these companies on regulatory matters during the audits conducted before the Ministry of Health. She supervises the team in relation to strategy and policy setting issues, for comprehensive and complex mandates related to the insurance disputes and negotiates the settlement assessment. She has been providing consultancy on all matters and has been leading numerous commercial disputes with a vast advisory and litigation expertise particularly with regards to compensation actions, unfair competition claims, preliminary injunction, and enforcement of the preliminary injunctions. She has significant experience helping clients achieve positive outcomes across a variety of industries and sectors.

Barış Kalaycı

PartnerBarış Kalaycı joined the firm in 1997 and has been a Partner since 2010. He is co-chair of the firm’s intellectual property and business crime and anti-corruption practices. His Intellectual Property practice focuses on trademarks, designs and copyrights. He has been involved in numerous anti-counterfeiting and anti-piracy campaigns and civil litigation cases mostly with preliminary injunction requests involving all aspects of IP rights. He also has a special focus on customs IP protection against counterfeit goods being exported, imported and in transit. Baris also leads the firm’s in-house investigations department which supports the investigative needs of all the firm’s clients and practice groups, especially in anti-counterfeiting and anti-piracy matters. Barış also leads the teams in major business crimes and anti-corruption cases as well as some high profile commercial litigation.

Begüm Yavuzdoğan Okumuş

Partner Begüm Yavuzdoğan Okumuş has been with the firm since 2007 and became a partner in 2021. Her practice focuses on data protection and privacy, corporate and M&A, life sciences, and competition. Begüm deals with all aspects of data protection and privacy, including supervising and conducting data privacy compliance projects, advising multinational clients in their activities on a day to day basis as well as in their specific projects. She has sector specific knowledge in regulated sectors and advises clients on newly developed devices/apps to ensure compliance. Begüm advises clients on international data transfer of personal data and represents clients before the Turkish DPA. She assists clients in data breach notifications and investigations, provides appeal strategies to object to Turkish DPA decisions rendered against our clients. Begüm represents multinational companies operating in various industries including pharmaceutical, medical device, telecoms, banking and automotive industry. She holds Certified Information Privacy Professional Europe (CIPP/E) designation from the International Association of Privacy Professionals and she is one of the former co-chairs of IAPP Knowledgenet Istanbul Chapter, and founding member of Data Protection Association in Istanbul. Begüm led several M&A projects including due diligence processes and assisted various local and foreign companies during incorporation of their partnership in special projects which also include transfer of technology, know-how and thus needs protection in this respect. She drafted and negotiated several joint-venture agreements, shareholders agreement, share pledge and voting agreements. In addition to her corporate law expertise, she has experience in competition law related matters and provides full service to clients in their corporate law related matters. Apart from providing consultancy services and trainings, she is also representing clients before the TCA about notifications and investigations. Having wide range of experience in pharmaceutical and medical device industry, Begum advised and represented several multinational pharmaceutical and medical device companies on their commercial deals and needs, including advising on their new investments in Turkey, marketing authorization and asset transfers, corporate restructuring projects, negotiating distributorship agreements and termination of these agreements, and advising on localisation projects.

Beril Yayla Sapan

Partner Beril Yayla Sapan joined the firm in 2008 and became a partner in 2021. Her practice focuses on employment, dispute management, business crime and anti-corruption and administrative, tax and regulatory areas. Beril advises on employment contracts and policies, confidentiality and restrictive covenants, collective bargaining agreements, employee related data protection, business immigration, terminations, collective redundancies, and settlement. She also represents clients in litigation relating to termination, employment related debts, mobbing and discrimination claims. Beril handles high-profile commercial conflicts including those arising from unfair competition, distribution relationships and corporate structure along with complex debt collection proceedings. She successfully represents clients before the commercial and administrative courts. She is also experienced in areas where commercial and criminal laws overlap and advises several multinational companies on white collar crime, compliance, and legal audits.

Dicle Doğan

Managing Associate Dicle Doğan is a managing associate in Gun + Partners and she has been working for the firm since 2011. Dicle has been specialized on Life Sciences, and intellectual property with a special focus on trademarks and designs. She advises corporate clients from life sciences sector, especially multinational pharmaceutical and medical device companies, the Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (AIFD) and the Association of Research-Based Medical Technologies Manufacturers (ARTED) in Turkey. She advises and represents her clients on a wide range of issues including promotional activities, advertisement, labelling requirements, clinical trials, marketing authorization procedures, pricing and reimbursement regulations, and also assists clients in their day to day business activities. Her litigation work centres on the intellectual property field particularly on trademark infringement and unfair competition, trademark invalidation and revocation actions. She is also experienced in cases where the cancellation of an administrative act such as Regulations is requested from the relevant public authority or from the Council of State.

Görkem Bilgin

Partner Görkem Bilgin has been with the firm since 2012 and became a partner in 2021. His practice is focused on corporate and M&A, life sciences, energy and natural resources, and insurance and reinsurance practice areas. Görkem��s practice mainly concentrates on corporate and commercial law issues with a focus on merger and acquisitions and corporate governance issues. He has been involved in various M&A transactions and advised foreign and Turkish companies on their joint ventures, drafted and negotiated SPAs, SHAs and JV agreements, conducted the due diligence processes, and prepared and re-structured numerous commercial agreements. Görkem also advises and represents clients from life sciences sector, especially multinational pharmaceutical and medical device companies in relation to their complex agreements and engagements with the authorities as well as their distributors and manufacturers. Görkem advises clients, both national and international, on Turkish energy and natural resources legislation, providing advisory services in the areas of energy law. Görkem assists insurance companies from the regulatory aspect, and he advises national and international insurance companies regarding localization of the insurance and reinsurance policies in Turkey.

Güldeniz Doğan Alkan

Partner Güldeniz Doğan Alkan joined the firm in 2006 and has been a partner since 2017. Güldeniz is both lawyer and a trademark and patent attorney specializing in Intellectual Property law. She focuses on trademark and design, and copyright as well as unfair competition. Güldeniz advises on both contentious and non-contentious matters including implementing IP protection and enforcement strategies, and represents clients before the Ankara IP courts (including actions against the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office) and represents clients before courts in cancellation, infringement and other types of action. She also works in IP enforcement where she supervises and drafts oppositions and appeals on trademark and design applications before the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office. She represents foreign, multinational and Turkish clients from numerous business sectors including food and beverage, fashion, cosmetics, textile, electronics, entertainment, hotel and tourism, media and entertainment, pharmaceuticals, radio and TV broadcasting, telecoms, tobacco on all aspects of Intellectual Property and regulatory matters.

Hande Hançar

Partner Hande Hançar joined the firm in 2005 and has been a partner since 2014. She is co-chair of the firm’s intellectual property and technology, media & telecommunication practices. She advises on intellectual property, both contentious and non-contentious matters relating to trademarks, copyrights, industrial designs, domain names and unfair competition. She has extensive litigation experience and has counselled numerous foreign clients on IP strategies, legal disputes, licensing and settlement agreements. Hande has also acted on behalf of originators in numerous complex patent infringement and validity actions in the pharmaceutical industry and assisted clients in drafting complex software and patent license contracts. Within the scope of the technology, media & telecommunication practice group, Hande provides support to clients on consumer law particularly for labelling and product liability issues, commercial communication and advertising, data protection and ensuring that their products and services are compliant with the Turkish regulatory regime. Hande also serves as a counsel to the Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (AIFD) in Turkey and advises on many regulatory policy papers and drafting regulations proposed to the Turkish governmental authorities.

Mehmet Gün

Partner Mehmet Gün, the founder of the Firm, is truly a self-made man. Despite the enormous difficulties of his childhood, born into poverty in a rural area of Turkey, he managed to break these boundaries to become the founder of one of Turkey’s top law firms and earned global recognition and respect as one of the leading international lawyers in Turkey, instead of herding goats and donkeys in his hometown in the Taurus Mountains in Anatolia. In a professional career of almost 40 years, he founded and developed a firm which is renowned locally and internationally for its expertise in commercial and corporate, intellectual property, life sciences & pharmaceuticals and commercial litigation practices in Turkey. In addition to leading the Firm, he developed an ERP software suite for managing law firms and other professional service businesses which has become the backbone of the Firms’ continuous development. He was among the pioneers in the development, regulation, promotion and enforcement of modern Turkish IP laws by the Turkish government, and advised several industry NGO’s and parliamentary debates of the most recent Industrial Property Act of Turkey. He considers himself as a litigator and has acted as lead and co-counsel in numerous local and international litigation, arbitration and mediation. He currently focuses on complex litigation frequently with cross border elements, business concerns and acts as a strategic advisor to clients and the large team of lawyers in the firm. He has made significant contributions to his country’s and business community’s benefit of his international legal expertise, outstanding understanding the legal and administrative structure of the Turkish Republic, the state of the rule of law, the boundaries of the Turkish Judiciary and their effects on the business and social environment Mr. Gün has established the Better Justice Association and Istanbul Arbitration Association NGOs. Criticizing the abusive use of court appointed experts by Turkish judiciary he has written a book on “Unconstitutionality of the Privileged Protection Afforded to Community of Experts. He has also written, for TÜSİAD, the Turkish Industry and Business Association, the “Report for Quality in Judicial Services and the Elements of Quality” and led the series of conferences communicating the Report’s key themes to business communities throughout Turkey. He has also written, for the Better Justice Association, “the Proposal for the Establishment of a Higher Judicial Council Structure to Ensure the Independence of the Judiciary.” He recently completed another book on advancing Turkish democracy through the rule of law and public accountability. In addition, he has authored his professional autobiography “From the Steppes to Becoming a Global lawyer” sharing his vast experience with the Turkish legal community. He is a philanthropist working to provide university education for disadvantaged of young girls and boys from his hometown, and also for the professional development of legal practice in Turkey. He has organized several conferences sharing the know-how he has accumulated in the firm with his peers in all parts of the country aiming to improve the Turkish legal profession to state of the art international standards. He has begun licensing the ERP software to other lawyers and firms either at no or very low cost. He is member to several business and professional NGOs contributing to the improvement of the business environment through advocating the rule of law, accountability and separation of powers and the true independence of the judiciary.

Mutlu Yıldırım Köse

Partner Mutlu Yıldırım Köse has been with the firm since 2006 and a partner since 2017. Mutlu is both a lawyer and trademark and patent attorney specializing in intellectual property practice. Her IP practice focuses on trademarks, designs and copyrights. She has been involved in numerous projects on all fields of IP. Her involvement includes both contentious and non-contentious matters in relation to trademarks, copyrights, designs, patents, domain names and unfair competition. She has an extensive litigation experience, counselled various domestic and foreign clients regarding their IP strategies, legal disputes, licensing and settlement agreements. She also works in IP prosecution where supervises and drafts oppositions and appeals regarding trademark and design applications before the Turkish patent and trademark office. She represents foreign, multinational and Turkish clients from numerous business areas including electronics, fashion, cosmetics, textile, entertainment, hotel and tourism, media and entertainment, pharmaceuticals, radio and TV broadcasting, telecoms on all aspects of intellectual property and regulatory matters.

Özge Atılgan Karakulak

Partner Özge Atılgan Karakulak has been with the firm since 2005 and has been a partner since 2013. She is chair of the firm’s life sciences industry and competition practices and co-chair of patent and utility models practice. With the combination of Özge’s advisory and litigation expertise and in-depth knowledge of the life sciences sector, she advises clients across all phases of the business cycle of life science products, such as registration / authorization procedures, promotion practices, pricing and reimbursement regulations, distribution relationships and co-marketing deals, as well as on issues of merger control, vertical restraints and abusive conduct. Özge has acted on behalf of originators in numerous complex patent infringement and validity actions in the pharmaceutical industry and she was involved in the first ever pharmaceutical data exclusivity actions in Turkey. In addition her corporate work, Özge serves as a counsel to the Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (AIFD) and the Association of Research-Based Medical Technologies Manufacturers (ARTED) in Turkey and advises on numerous regulatory policy papers and drafting regulations for the Turkish government authorities.

Selin Sinem Erciyas

Partner Selin Sinem Erciyas joined the firm in 2006 and became a partner in 2014. She specializes in life sciences and intellectual property with a special focus on patents and utility models. Selin has been involved in a number of advisory and litigation matters in all fields of IP and has handled hundreds of contentious and non-contentious administrative oppositions and court actions involving intellectual property rights, particularly in relation with protection of patent rights. She regularly advises on patent infringement actions, declaration of non-infringement actions and nullity actions. She represents multinational pharmaceutical companies before the Ministry of Health on regulatory issues and examinations. Selin is the spokesperson for some NGO’s in Turkey and in Europe and represents these NGO’s before Turkish Parliament and Turkish Ministries. Delegation of the European Union to Turkey contacts with Selin every year before drafting the IP section of EU Progress Report of Turkey. Selin also advises commercial counselors of Embassy of U.S.A, British Embassy, and Embassy of Switzerland in relation with the IP Law and developments in Turkey.

Uğur Aktekin

Hall of fame

Partner Uğur Aktekin joined the firm in 1999 and has been a partner since 2003. He is co-chair of the firm’s intellectual property practice and the technology, media and telecom industry practice Uğur’s Intellectual Property practice focuses on trademarks, designs and copyrights. He advises on implementing IP protection and enforcement strategies and portfolio management, representing clients before the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office, as well as cancellation, infringement and other court actions and domain name ADR proceedings, filing for interlocutory and precautionary injunctions, negotiating and drafting co-existence, settlement and licensing agreements. Uğur has been involved in numerous anti-piracy campaigns, civil litigation, criminal raids and litigation involving software copyrights, cinematographic and musical copyrights, cartoon character copyrights, architectural copyrights, databases and television film formats. His TMT practice covers media, advertising, consumer, internet, technology licensing, information technologies, computer software, computer games, data protection, data privacy and security. He advises on all aspects of advertising and media laws, including clearance of advertisements, contracts, promotions and sweepstakes to various local and multinational companies primarily on food and beverages, technology, media, telecom and entertainment sectors. Uğur also advises on data protection legislation, website privacy policies and terms of use under Turkish law.

Zeynep Seda Alhas

Partner Zeynep Seda Alhas joined the firm in 2006 and became a partner in 2017. She is both a lawyer and a trademark attorney specializing in Intellectual Property law. She focuses trademark and design, anti-counterfeiting, and copyright. Zeynep’s IP litigation practice focuses on trademarks, designs, unfair competition and copyrights. She advises a wide range of foreign and domestic clients from numerous business sectors on implementing IP protection and enforcement strategies, She has vast experience in civil IP litigation, as well as domain name and unfair competition conflicts, representing clients in cancellation, invalidation, infringement and other civil court actions and domain name ADR proceedings, filing for interlocutory and precautionary injunctions, negotiating and drafting co-existence, settlement and licensing agreements. Zeynep has been involved in numerous anti-counterfeiting and anti-piracy campaigns, handled and supervised evidence gathering and criminal raid procedures all around Turkey, and works with the firm’s in-house investigations department closely. She advises on portfolio management strategies and represents clients before the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TPTO), and supervises opposition and appeal procedures for trademark, design and well known trademark applications to the TPTO.

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