When asked what’s happening in the Turkish legal market right now, Haluk Bilgic, the Managing Partner of the Bilgic Attorney Partnership, says, “in general, nothing particularly exciting”.
The legal market in general appears pretty stable, Bilgic reports. “There’s always gossip about some firms leaving Turkey, or expanding, or whatever,” he says. "Generally they’re not substantiated, but you know how gossip happens.”
Haluk and his team recently became affiliated with Norton Rose Fulbright, following the firm’s merger with Chadbourne & Parke in July. That merger provided additional momentum to Haluk’s practice, he says, and coincided with an uptick in law firm business in Turkey the past few months. "We’re busy,” he says. “We have been for some time.” He elaborates. "Like the rest of Turkey we faced challenges stemming from all the elections and controversy of the past couple of years. The challenging environment obviously had an effect on investment coming in, and clients, considering investments that were not urgent, tended to choose a 'wait and see” policy, which is unsurprising.” This phenomenon "gave a pause to large-scale investments and the legal market,” Bilgic says, “but since the Constitutional referendum in April, things have started to pick up, and we are busy with project finance, M&A and other corporate transactions.” In addition, he says, "even though this affected Western investors to a larger extent, we had an influx of investment from other regions, primarily the Gulf Region and the Chinese.”
And it’s not as if Western investors have abandoned the market. "Western investors are more cautious in terms of making decisions about their investments,” Bilgic reports, “but ultimately, regardless where they come from, if they see an opportunity they grab it. If there’s a match, they want to get it.” Especially, he says, “in certain industries which are little affected by the political news, such as Energy, Infrastructure, and PPPs in Healthcare.” Bilgic says, “these industries, which are necessary to the running of the country, remain dynamic. The government is also doing its best to keep these industries and sectors vibrant and alive, with a view to mitigating the effects of the controversy.“
Finally, Bilgic says there’s no important legislation on the upcoming agenda. "Decree-laws are passed from time to time, and it’s difficult to predict what those might entail. But otherwise, I don’t expect anything significant soon.”
