Hergüner Bilgen Üçer Attorney Partnership

The firm: Founded in 1989, Hergüner Bilgen Üçer Attorney Partnership is one of the oldest, largest, and most well-established corporate law firms in Turkey. In spite of its size, the firm maintains a personalised attention to detail that its clients have come to expect. Among Turkish law firms with a global reach, the firm is one of the few that is truly local and full-service. This combination allows Hergüner to equally advise large multinational organisations, international financial institutions, private individuals, and local start-ups and has earned the firm its reputation for flexibility and innovation.

Areas of practice
Banking and finance: Hergüner represents IFIs, banks, corporations and other investment experts in all sorts of lending transactions including corporate lending, acquisition finance, and project finance. The team also handles acquisitions of financial institutions, cross-border Islamic finance transactions such as murabaha agreements and sukuk offerings, and advises on international compliance issues such as FATCA, Dodd-Frank, and international sanctions regimes in addition to local compliance issues.

Commercial, corporate and M&A: for the last two decades Hergüner has been involved in the majority of significant Turkish M&A deals, and it is a pioneer in the development of corporate governance principles in Turkey. The firm is proud to have represented many international clients in Turkey during their initial entry into the market, through further acquisitions, and in some cases, their exit transactions, in addition to assisting these clients with corporate compliance matters throughout their entire operational life.

Capital markets: Hergüner’s capital markets team represents investors and financial institutions in some of the most innovative securities transactions in the Turkish market. The team handles corporate bond issuances, sale/purchase transactions concerning the shares of the leading publicly held entities in Turkey, mandatory tender offer transactions, exemption applications, and equity-offering transactions.

Real estate and construction: Hergüner advises the world’s leading international retailers, real estate funds and developers in transactions involving all forms of real estate from ports to urban regeneration. The team also specializes in sophisticated real estate litigation, arbitration and represents local and international developers and investors before civil courts, administrative courts, tax courts and arbitral tribunals.

Competition: Hergüner’s competition team is led by a former state antitrust case manager and provides legal advice and assistance related to pre-investigations and investigations that have been initiated by the Competition Board, in addition to providing compliance training and programs and competition law due diligence services to clients.

Dispute resolution: Hergüner’s dispute resolution team handles every type of dispute from complex litigation to international and domestic arbitration, as well as white collar investigations, administrative disputes, and mediation. The firm’s decades of experience includes commercial disputes, high profile administrative lawsuits, and criminal proceedings.

Employment: Hergüner advises Turkish and international companies in all aspects of employment, from sensitive c-suite executive issues to contentious collective bargaining negotiations. The team advises our clients on their daily corporate needs as they relate to employment issues and provides legal assistance in the most complex, sensitive matters, resulting in innovative legal solutions.

Data protection: Hergüner has extensive experience in data protection and cybersecurity matters, including data protection compliance projects and guiding clients through data protection legislation as it relates to any aspect of their business, as well as data transfer issues and handling data breach notifications. Members of the team, equipped with global and local data protection knowledge, are able to navigate client companies through redesigning or adapting their data protection programs, policies, and data transfer schemes to comply with Turkish data protection law.

Energy and natural resources: from power plants to pipelines, Hergüner is a leader in the energy field, both in terms of innovative solutions to novel energy issues and benchmark international deals. The team has significant experience in mine financing, major cross-border oil and gas pipelines, and internationally funded generation facilities. Hergüner advises clients in all segments of the energy sector including traditional resources like oil and gas, mining, natural gas, coal, and nuclear, as well as renewable energy resources such as wind, solar, tidal, and geothermal, which can present novel and unique legal issues.

IT and telecoms: Hergüner represents operators, agencies, investors and lenders in a range of regulatory and transactional matters covering everything from licensing and data protection to litigation.

Intellectual property: the Hergüner team supports all aspects of IP law including patents, trade marks, utility models, industrial design, geographical signs, domain names, copyright, litigation and enforcement.

Project finance/projects: from Ottoman-era concessions to modern PPPs, Hergüner effectively wrote the book on project finance, advising clients on some of the largest projects in Turkish history.

Transport: from financing to operations, Hergüner represents sponsors, project companies, financial institutions, contractors and suppliers developing motorways, railways, ports and airports.

Restructuring and insolvency: Hergüner represents local and international companies through both M&A-related insolvency and restructuring, as well as sensitive bankruptcy enforcement proceedings.

Tax: from domestic structuring and authority disputes to multinational AD/CVD and safeguards cases, Hergüner advises local and international companies on all their tax issues.

Media and entertainment: Hergüner advises major media sector projects, including regulatory, commercial, and transactional aspects of print, television and radio broadcasting.

Global trade and customs: Hergüner has broad experience in investigations concerning import safeguard measures and anti-dumping made by the Imports General Directorate of the Ministry of Trade and acts as counsel to Turkish producers on the plaintiff side as well as to foreign exporters on the interested party side.

Immigration and citizenship via investment: Hergüner’s citizenship acquisition team represents foreign individuals throughout the process of obtaining Turkish citizenship with our unique understanding and deep knowledge of the requirements and procedures necessary to become a citizen.

White-collar and investigations: Our team has first-rate experience in dealing with government investigations and enforcement matters. Our lawyers have substantial experience in defending clients through all phases of investigations and with criminal and civil enforcement proceedings, having represented clients before the prosecutors and courts.