Interview with: Bilge Derinbay, Partner

What do you see as the main points that differentiate NSN LAW Firm from your competitors?

Beyond a doubt, our ability to seize the client’s needs considering the business objectives and incentives. By the virtue of our business oriented mind, we constantly conduct industry analyses and evaluate new trends and developments as per our clients’ business activities, including monitoring the legal aspects of commercial operations. The legal advice we provide is not a solely concerning with outlining the potential legal options available, but also encompassing practical evaluations and resolutions that are tailored to the sector specific, easily comprehensible, and aim to share the risk involved.

We attach a great importance to consult with a team-based approach. In this way, the lawyers with a different seniority are assigned to a given task and the delegation of responsibilities is promptly determined by our legal professionals, each of whom possesses expertise in their respective fields. This operational principle empowers us to take a multi-faceted approach towards the tasks understanding from various angle. While a partner is involved in the process of preparing any kind of legal advice to a client, we take necessary management actions to provide a cost-effective service with our efficient time management skills.

I am also proud to say that NSN attaches great importance to supports development of the lawyers, leading them to work in a healthy and productive environment. In particular, NSN paves the way for an academic development of its qualified lawyers throughout their working life.

Which practices do you see growing in the next 12 months? What are the drivers behind that?

Developments in technology, which have an impact on the legal domain, compel us to keep pace with these developments and even lead the way in certain instances. Thus, we see that fields such as artificial intelligence, information technology, blockchain, e-commerce and so on are changing rapidly and revealing radical regulations with endless discussions. As a matter of fact, technological developments lead to the expansion of areas within the law, and even the creation of new areas of law.

I personally predict that the use of artificial intelligence would cause increasing of the violations by the ease of copyright infringement facilitated by advancing technology. For instance, the widespread use of artificial intelligence systems such as ChatGPT is bringing with many discussions and unclear areas in legal regulations. For another example, due to the unique character of blockchain system, the infringers cannot be identified for the anonymous NFTs. I would also say that the Product Liability conflicts between the artificial intelligence and consumers are still a grey area due to the difficulty to determine a ‘liable person’.

Additionally, considering the tendency of the companies and the conjuncture in the world on sustainability will also lead to an increase in studies in the legal area. Within this scope, new regulations may be introduced to companies or legislation may emerge to protect the environment. Also, it would not be surprising to discover new regulations in the rapidly growing E-Commerce sector.

What’s the main change you’ve made in the firm that will benefit clients?

We have carried into effect a proactive remote working model, which enables us to promptly organize meetings with our clients who are located overseas and effectively handle our international projects.

We have established an automatic information system to notify our clients legal and sectoral developments collected from administrative authorities’ publications, decisions and Official Gazette notifications. Through these materials, we strive to prevent information overload and categorize pertinent data based on the working areas of our clients. Furthermore, we frequently organize in-house presentations on various legal fields and support their participation in academic webinars and seminars.

We believe that accessing to quality legal services should be accessible to all members of society. In this regard, we have significantly increased our pro bono cases. We strive to contribute to social solidarity, especially in the aftermath of the earthquake, by providing assistance by pro bono cases.

Is technology changing the way you interact with your clients, and the services you can provide them?

Since technology allows us to communicate quickly, we have developed ways to communicate effectively with our clients. Within this scope, we now digitize and transmit the materials we send to our clients, so that they are accessible at any time. As a result, the number of followers of our industry reports is increasing day by day.

Can you give us a practical example of how you have helped a client to add value to their business?

We provided legal support to a globally known social network provider in Turkey. Situations where global social media platforms seek opinions can present challenging processes, encompassing areas such as data protection, advertising law, copyright, crypto assets, and other disciplines. Thanks to the specialized expertise of the lawyers in our team, we could provide support to global social media platforms by efficiently and expeditiously organizing solutions, even across different fields. There were also projects requires meeting with the bureaucrats in the government authorities while adhering to confidentiality requirements regarding our clients’ projects, and work towards achieving a consensus between these authorities and the client.
During the pandemic period, we provided end-to-end support for a global healthcare company’s commercial procedures related to the Covid-19 treatment. By virtue of focusing on creating a fast and accurate solution to the urgent needs of the client, I was not only a legal representative, but also have an administrative role in a specific part of the corporation. We immediately organized under the pressure of public health concern by providing the services from company establishment in order to enter into the Turkish market to employment and data protection procedures.

Are clients looking for stability and strategic direction from their law firms – where do you see the firm in three years’ time?

I believe that the clients expectation from the firm is taking an ownership and carry out their work as if the firm was a part of their own team. By taking this consciousness, we are dedicated to provide our clients direct solutions on how to resolve unclear situations and conflicts, rather than just presenting legal opinions explaining the concrete situation. Our goal is to make accurate and up-to-date assessments in the sectors our clients operate in, so that we can help them gain a competitive advantage over other firms. We believe that our clients want to see the law firms they work with as a comfort zone. For this reason, we believe that trust and open communication are very important in our dealings with our clients.

We are committed to expand our services and add new departments to our firm by the result of development of the technology. I personally assume that while new legal areas are currently conducted by collective departments, it will require establishment of new departments focusing on a settled legal fields. Also, by virtue of increasing remote working system, we will rapidly expand our client network with our lawyers located in different cities in Turkey or abroad.