Category: Turkiye

The Gur Law Firm has announced the promotions of two Associates to Partner in the firm’s Istanbul office.

New Partners Feyza Gerger Erdal and Sena Apak both focus on Corporate and Banking/Finance matters.  Gerger has extensive experience in M&A, Foreign Direct Investment, Public Tenders and Privatizations, Real Estate and Construction, Employment, and General Corporate Counseling. Apak is specialized in International M&A, Cross-border Investment, Banking and Finance Transactions, Project Finance, among other areas and sectors.

Meltem Azbazdar has joined Diageo as its new General Counsel responsible for the Turkish market. 

Azbazdar previously worked at Carrefour as a Real Estate and Business Development Director and General Counsel. Prior to that she worked as a Senior Associate with the Turkish Herguner Bilgen Ozeke law firm. She specializes in Corporate/M&A and Real Estate.

Senior Associate Onur Ergun has been promoted to Partner at the Taboglu & Demirhan law firm in Turkey.

Ergun has been at T&D since 2010, and focuses on M&A, Privatization, and Project Finance as well as Capital Markets, Competition and Banking matters. He graduated from Istanbul University, School of Law in 2003 and received his LL.M. degree in Berlin Freie Universitat in 2005.

Partner Eren Kursun has left White & Case in Istanbul to join the Esin Attorney Partnership, the Turkish member firm of Baker & McKenzie. 

Kursun, who will become the fifth partner in Esin’s Mergers & Acquisitions practice, focuses his practice on M&A, real estate, and capital markets law. He focuses primarily on the healthcare, financial services, and transportation sectors.

“The Turkish market has seen a number of high-profile M&As over the past year, and the addition of a fifth partner to our M&A practice enables us to further expand the scope of services we can offer. Eren’s appointment reaffirms our ongoing commitment to being the leading M&A practice in Turkey,” commented Ismail Esin, Managing Partner of the Turkish office.

Baker & McKenzie, working primarily through the Esin Attorney Partnership, its Turkish member firm, has advised on the acquisition of a leading Turkish dairy products distributor.

The firm advised the Abraaj Group – a leading private equity investor operating in high-growth markets – in connection with the acquisition of a majority stake in Yorsan Group, a Turkish manufacturer and distributor of dairy products, including milk, cheese, and the popular Turkish Ayran. Esin advised Abraaj on (i) the acquisition financing (the lead arrangers of which were Turkiye Garanti Bankasi and Yapi Kredi), and (ii) the co-investment of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Yoruk Family. The deal was closed on 16 January 2014.

Managing Partner Ismail Esin and M&A and Banking & Finance Partner Muhsin Keskin led the Esin team, while Baker’s team was led by Global Head of Private Equity Simon Hughes, M&A Partner Kuif Klein Wassink, and Banking & Finance Partner Fedor Tanke.

Keskin described the transaction as “particularly challenging”, noting that it “combined the capabilities of seven practice groups – Private Equity, Mergers & Acquisitions, Banking & Finance, Employment, Competition, Corporate and IP – across three offices – Istanbul, London, and Amsterdam.”

Senior Dispute Resolution lawyer Cenk Kisnisci has been promoted to Partner by the Bener Law Firm in Turkey, effective as of January 1, 2014.

Cenk joined Bener in 2004 and has been with the firm since. His practice includes advising Turkish and multinational clients across a broad spectrum of litigation including high-value contractual disputes, real estate and construction disputes, and lease disputes, among others. In addition to his Dispute Resolution work, Kisnisci also works in Bankruptcy, Labor, and Intellectual Property, among other areas.

Disproving the adage that you can’t go home again, Partner Funda Ozsel has returned to the Bener Law Firm after a year and a half at competitor GSI Meridian.

Ozsel had spent nine years with the Bener Law Firm before leaving for GSI Meridian in December, 2011, but left GSI  in the spring of 2013, and after taking some time off, reached an agreement to return to Bener in January of this year. Ozsel’s practice focuses on Real Estate and Corporate Retainers, as well as additional Projects and Contracts work.  

Turkey’s Bezen and Partners law firm has hired senior Russian lawyer Natalie Petrushevskaya for the firm’s Istanbul office. According to B&P Partner Yesim Bezen, the move is part of the firm’s plan “to beef up its Russian desk and develop further its Russia and CIS focused client base.”

Although Petrushevskaya is qualified in Russia rather than Turkey, she has been working in Istanbul for most of the last decade, first in-house with Engeocom and Tekfen, and later in private practice with the Gur and Akinci law firms. She advises both Turkish and non-Turkish clients in areas such as M&A, Energy and Projects, and has experience in FIDIC based and EPC contracts for major construction, energy, and real estate projects in Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iraq.

Petrushevskaya will join Bezen & Partners as a Senior Associate.

The crowded Turkish legal market just got more so.

Senior lawyer Erkan Tercan has left the Paksoy law firm after 3.5 years to open up his own firm, which, he says, will focus on “capital markets, corporate, commercial, banking and finance, Islamic finance, antitrust, compliance & investigations and financial crimes.”

Before joining Paksoy in 2010 Tercan had worked for 13 years as an expert with the Capital Markets Board of Turkey.