Egemenoglu Law Firm

The firm: Egemenoğlu is one of the oldest, and largest, law firms in Turkey, advising leading local and international clients for over 50 years  (since 1968). In our two offices, one in Istanbul and the other in Bursa, we employ some 50 attorneys (five partners and nearly 45 associates).

Our multi-discipline firm’s busiest practice areas, presently, are dispute resolution; commercial, corporate and M&A; employment; restructuring and insolvency, and media and entertainment. We also have vast expertise and experience in banking and finance and in the real estate and construction sectors.

Areas of practice
Commercial, corporate and M&A: Because of Turkey’s stagnant, and more recently contracting, economy, there has been a precipitous drop in M&A transactions and financings. Despite this, our lawyers have completed several M&A deals in the past year. In this regard, several of our clients have taken advantage of the slowdown to either consolidate or spin-off parts of their operations, and we were engaged to assist them.

The economic downturn has not otherwise seriously impacted our commercial and corporate practice, where our lawyers continue to consult with clients on a day-to-day basis regarding a wide variety of issues relating to the operation and governance of their businesses, such as negotiation and drafting of key contracts and related documentation as well as assisting with complying with corporate formality requirements.

Our corporate lawyers also conduct, with lawyers from our employment practice, reviews of our clients’ compliance with existing Turkish law, and prepare periodic sector-specific legal bulletins and articles to keep our clients up-to-date about relevant legal developments. In the newest part of this practice area, our corporate lawyers work with clients with regard to Turkey’s new Privacy Act, developing and implementing bespoke internal practices and procedures necessary to ensure compliance with the Act’s strict requirements.

Employment: As outside employment counsel: Our employment law practice has been a firm cornerstone since it was first established in 1990. Our lawyers now consult, often daily, with our clients’ human resource departments, in-house lawyers and executives on almost every imaginable employment law related issue that arises in the normal course of their operations.

In one important specialty area of this practice, our attorneys work with clients whose work forces have been, or are being, unionized, providing among other important services assistance with the negotiation and implementation of collective bargaining agreements. And, as mentioned above, our employment and corporate lawyers team up to perform periodic reviews of clients’ compliance with Turkish law, and also communicate regularly with them about legal developments that may impact their businesses.

Local employment litigation: Although much of our work in this practice area is aimed at avoiding, or at least resolving early on, disputes that arise between employers and employees, our employment lawyers are necessarily involved in a considerable amount of litigation. For example, in just the past year we have represented clients in this regard in some 350 court cases.

Dispute resolution, and international arbitration: Local litigation: We have one of Turkey’s busiest dispute resolution practices. At any one time, approximately 20 of our attorneys are handling local court matters running the gamut from multimillion-dollar commercial disputes to court proceedings in which we represent victims of cybercrimes. In this regard, we practice before Turkish civil, commercial, administrative, tax, and criminal courts, as well as its appellate courts.

International arbitration:  Our dispute resolution lawyers have recently been engaged by several Turkish contractors to pursue multimillion-dollar damage claims related to construction projects in Turkmenistan and arising under the Turk-Turkmen Bilateral Investment Treaty. All of these matters are, or will be, before ICSID, the highly-regarded arbitration forum of the World Bank.

Restructuring and insolvency: Practice before Bankruptcy Courts: We have always had an active practice before local bankruptcy courts, representing both creditors and debtors. More recently – given that, after Turkey’s rapid economic growth in the 2000s, its economy has stagnated much of this decade, and more recently has turned recessionary – our workload in this area has dramatically increased. For example, we have over 1,000 cases pending before Turkish bankruptcy and appellate courts, up from no more than half that number a mere five years ago.

Debt restructuring, and the use of “Concordatum”: A key part of this practice now involves assisting clients in the demanding negotiations between debtors and creditors related to debt restructuring. In this regard, our lawyers often find themselves advising our debtor clients to take advantage of Concordatum, a type of court proceeding that has only recently become available in Turkey. (Concordatum provides quasi-bankrupt status to financially distressed companies, giving them temporary respite from their creditors.) We were the first firm in Turkey to bring a client under the protection of Concordatum proceedings, and one of our clients was the first to emerge from them, after having taken advantage of Concordatum protection to restructure its debts.

Media and entertainment: Our lawyers in this practice area represent both performing artists and companies that organize concerts, festivals and similar events, including arranging, or providing themselves, services related to ticketing, security, catering and even merchandising. In that capacity, we are involved in among other things the negotiation and drafting of the numerous contracts related to these activities, including for example providing such support for local and international concert tours.