Atayilmaz Enkür Çetinkaya Öner (AECO) Law Office

Atayılmaz Enkür Çetinkaya Öner (AECO) is an independent full-service law firm located in Istanbul.  We pride ourselves on offering the highest quality legal services with partner level involvement at every stage of the engagement.

Our focus is on offering practical and legally sound solutions under Turkish law for our international and domestic clients’ complex legal needs, with a dedicated and business-oriented team of lawyers.  Commercial awareness is fundamental to our practice. By virtue of our strong and dedicated team of business-oriented lawyers, we make it our goal to provide specialized legal advice in our areas of expertise.

Our areas of practice include:

• Commercial, Corporate and Mergers & Acquisitions;
• Corporate Restructuring and Reorganizations;
• Employment Law;
• Cybersecurity and Data Protection;
• Dispute Resolution;
• IT & Telecoms;
• Insurance;
• Real Estate and Construction;
• Energy; and
• Banking, Finance and Capital Markets;

Our legal team, including our co-founders and partners Emre Atayılmaz, Gökhan Enkür, Çağrı Çetinkaya and Yafes Öner have been consistently recognized and highly-ranked by leading legal publications.  Emre Atayılmaz has been consistently recognized as a “Leading Individual” and “Recommended Lawyer” invarious fields, including Employment, Real Estate and Construction and Dispute Resolution by Legal 500. Gökhan Enkür has been consistently ranked by IFLR 1000 and Who is Who Legal as a “Notable Practitioner” and “Leading Lawyer” in the field of M&A, and is a “Recommended Lawyer” in various fields of law, including corporate and M&A,  restructurings, insurance and energy, by Legal 500. Yafes Öner is ranked by Legal 500 as a “Recommended Lawyer” in various fields of law, including corporate, M&A, restructurings and banking, finance and capital markets.  Çağrı Çetinkaya is ranked by Legal 500 as a “Recommended Lawyer” and holds CIPP/E, CIPM, and FIP designations from the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP).

Additionally, Our Counsel Fazıl Çiftçi is ranked by Legal 500 as a “Recommended Lawyer” in  restructuring and insolvency, banking, finance and capital markets and dispute resolution. Our Counsel Darius Alam is ranked by Legal 500 as a “Recommended Lawyer” in corporate, M&A, banking, finance and capital markets.

Additionally, our Senior Associate Behiye Gökçeli has been consistently ranked as a “Recommended Lawyer” in various fields of law, including corporate, M&A, insurance and banking, finance and capital markets, and our Associate Kardelen Aysel Akça is ranked by Legal 500 as a “Recommended Lawyer” in corporate and M&A.

AECO was established following the dissolution of PAE Law Office and a subsequent merger that took place in 2024 with the practices of Çağrı Çetinkaya and Yafes Öner.  Emre Atayılmaz and Gökhan Enkür, co-founders and named partners of PAE Law Office—originally founded in 2010—played a pivotal role in shaping AECO, thereby leveraging the legacy of PAE Law Office team’s expertise and capabilities.  These capabilities have been expanded following the merger that created AECO.   AECO continues to operate in the same location in Akatlar, Istanbul previously used by PAE Law Office, and which has now been renamed as the AECO building.

AECO has a team of approximately 25 lawyers at all levels of seniority admitted in Istanbul and New York and a total team of 30 members.  All members of AECO’s senior team of partners and counsels have experience working at leading international law firms.  For more information on our firm, please do not hesitate to refer to our website at www.aecolaw.com.