Tolga Ismen has split off from the Ismen Gunalcin law firm — the Turkish arm of Locke Lord, which merged with Edwards Wildman in January of 2015 (reported on by CEE Legal Matters on December 11, 2014) — to join DL Attorneys at Law, the law firm arm of Deloitte in Turkey.
In the process, Ismen also splits off from longtime colleague and partner Arzum Gunalcin, who stays as head of the renamed Gunalcin law firm (which remains associated with Locke Lord).
At DL Attorneys at Law Ismen heads a team of nine lawyers — a number he expects to double by next year.
Ismen graduated from the University of Istanbul in 1997 and was admitted to the Istanbul bar in 1999. He also has an LL.M. from King’s College, London. From 1998 to 2001 and then from 2002 to 2004 he was an Associate with Derman Ortak Avukat Burosu — the Istanbul branch of White & Case. He was also a Partner at the EsinIsmen Law Firm from 2007-2009, then operated independently as the Ismen Law Firm before tying up with legacy Edwards Wildman in the summer of 2013.
In explaining his move to DL, Ismen explains his belief that the traditional structure of large local and international law firms has become outdated, saying, “the way we are providing legal services is like, last century. It is like a 20th-century business.” By contrast, he says, “we need to find a way to become relevant in today’s environment. What we need to do to create value is mix different businesses, and create something new for in-house counsel and CFOs and Chief Information Officers that they don’t already have.” And Ismen believes DL Attorneys at Law offers that new service: “I think what we are achieving, in Deloitte, is exactly that. Because what we are doing is using tax, legal, finance, consulting, IT, and HR in the same room.”
Ismen is pleased at the amount of business he’s seeing at DL. He points out that Deloitte has 1400 consultants in Turkey across all disciplines, whereas “the largest law firm is like 130 altogether.” As a result, he says, “there’s so much work here, for the first time in 15 years, my first word is not marketing, but doing.”
And in response to the charge that the Big 4 law firms don’t have the capacity to handle big ticket M&As and other forms of highly specialized work, Ismen laughs: “Now they do, in Istanbul.”
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