Sengüler & Sengüler

The firm: The firm is the successor of Scottish international energy firm Ledingham Chalmers renamed as the Turkish law firm Senguler & Senguler after an MBO by Selcuk Senguler and Jonathan Blythe in 2004. The firm was originally known for its strong energy law practices; however, it has now expanded its scope to become a full-service law firm with a strong track record, particularly in Projects, disputes, employment and corporate M&A matters. The firm services a wide range of foreign multinationals providing day-to-day Turkish legal support as needed. In this context the firm is known for its ability to handle bulk employment litigation with analysis, consultancy and training to lower litigation risks. The firm also has strong teams providing corporate secretarial services and compliance support.

Following the sad passing of one of the firm’s founders, Selçuk Şenguler in November 2017, Gül Şengüler (Selcuk’s wife) assumed the role as head of litigation. Together with partners Jonathan Blythe and Nihan Yiğit.  The three partners have helped to expand both the Senguler team and the work over the last several years.

Areas of practice: The firm’s main work is for multinational foreign investors with businesses in Turkey. The firm acts for some of the worlds biggest companies, in the technolody, energy, industrial and finance sectors. Clients include major US and Chinese payment card providers, to IT and Telecoms companies, major industrial conglomorates including automotive and parts manufacturers, food tech and production companies, security industries and textile companies. We also service hotel chains from Europe and the UK, global energy firms and companies in the agriculture sector.

Corporate M&A: Over the years the firm has been involved in a wide range of M&A and restructuring transactions across a range of sectors including, industrial, agricultural, IT, telecoms, health, banking, leisure and energy. Recent M&As or corporate establishments include acquisitions and divestments involving clients in the food and services sector, technology and telecoms. Plus, acquisitions in som dot com start ups, payment systems businesses, an automotive parts manufacturing company and service sector players. The corporate team also provides corporate secretarial services with over 70 multinational clients having establishments all around Turkey. We have recently got involved in assisting some Turkish entrepaneurs with an IPO in London.
Leading individuals: Nihan Yigit and Ceren Sancakli.

Litigation, arbitration and mediation: The firm handles over 800 cases on a variety of matters, including complex commercial cases, debt collection and bulk employment law disputes. In particular for HR litigation, we perform an audit and reporting service for clients to enable analysis of key risks and process failures. We then provide training to clients to reduce the risk of future litigation. We also provide support for mediation cases, which is now mandatory for HR and commercial law matters. Three of our team have been trained as mediators and are able to support clients in this new area. We have recently won a major court victory in a long running case dealing with unauthorised sale of corporate property on behalf of a major European Bank. In addition in the arbitration sphere, we are joint counsel in a large investment arbitration claim by a Turkish investor against Turkmenistan currently running in ICSID. Jonathan Blythe heads that team.
Leading individuals: Gül Şengüler, Yasemin Akdeniz, Alp Kalmaz, and
Tuğba Yüksel. For Arbitration Jonathan Blythe

Employment and HR: The firm provides advice on daily HR matters focusing on meeting the corporate needs of clients, including standardization of employment contracts and related documents, conducting sensitive terminations as well as union negotiations. The HR legal team deals with between 80-100 hearings a month and by active engagement, smart analysis and close cooperation with clients’ HR departments has managed to encourage process and behavioural change. In particular ensuring detailed documentation of HR incidents or issues. This has led to a reduction of risk and case numbers leading to an increase in the number of cases won. The model we developed has been used in other jurisdictions by one of our major relationship global law firms.
Leading individuals: Gül Şengüler, Yasemin Akdeniz, Alp Kalmaz, and
Tuğba Yüksel.

Energy and mining projects: As the successor to the Istanbul office of Ledingham Chalmers (a Scottish oil and gas law firm), the firm has an established track record in the energy sector. In this respect the firm has been involved in advising a number of oil majors, juniors and independents in their upstream operations in Turkey. Alongside upstream work we have had the privilege of advising both public sector and independent oil sector investors in key gas and crude oil pipeline projects passing through Turkey. The resources work has now also extended to mining and in particular the firm continues to advise clients in the gold mining sector and other precious metals.
 Leading individuals: Jonathan Blythe, Nihan Yiğit

Environmental law and responsibility: In this world of increasing climate-change, we are pleased to be able to make a contribution to ensuring that we are working responsibly and being conscious of making proper use of our resources. In this context we are pleased to support a number of clients in the renewable sector and to be working with clients in some recycling and environmentally friendly projects.
Leading individuals: Jonathan Blythe, Nihan Yiğit

Property and real estate: The firm continues to act for clients in both the purchase and sale of property but also supporting those need to manage their legal relationships in relations to commercial leases. Clients in the property sector have included royalty from the Middle East, private and corporate clients all investors in real estate in Istanbul and further afield. The Turkish system of property ownership is managed via local title registry offices and most transactions take place at these offices. There is no system of solicitors buying and selling on behalf of clients as would be expected in the UK. Nevertheless, the firm’s property team can check the title deed, encumbrance and local authority planning status of any prospective property and handle the transaction on behalf of the client via the relevant powers of attorney. With respect to lease agreements, we are continually advising our commercial clients on their new or renewing lease arrangements. We are often involved in the drafting and negotiation of the agreements.
Leading individuals: Gül Şengüler and Coskun Şengüler

Banking finance and projects: As part of our task of supporting major corporates in Turkey, we are often called upon to assist with advising on their financing deals. This includes reviewing and negotiating finance documents, preparing security documents and implementing all the local aspects of the financing process. We are also called on to do the legal DD for financing deals where there is a local aspect and provide legal opinions to lenders. In addition, we also act for a number of international banks to whom we provide local law support and advice on their arrangements with local banks.
Leading individuals: Jonathan Blythe and Nihan Yiğit.