Basak Gurbuz is Counsel with The Walt Disney Company in Turkey, a company she joined in August 2015. Before going in-house, she worked for eight years at Gun + Partners and another year and a half at Pekin & Bayar.

As the host of the world’s 17th largest economy and 19th largest population, Turkey’s energy needs are significant – and growing. The country’s energy demand is expected to grow about 5% each year for the immediate future, and the Turkish government has announced its plans to increase the share of renewable sources in the country’s total installed power to 30% by 2023. 

Investments can be used as tools to support and enhance a country’s economic structure. The Turkish government has developed some policies which, together, create an appropriate and advantageous investment environment for international and domestic investors.

Turkey’s Data Protection Law, which was published in the country’s Official Gazette on April 7, 2016, established the legal framework for the protection of personal data in Turkey and added new obligations for employers.

The Law on Labor Courts Number 7036 was published and announced in the Official Gazette on October 25, 2017. One of the most important amendments stipulated in this law (the “Law”) is the introduction of a “mandatory mediation” procedure. Mediation is based on a “win-win” philosophy; this is a process where no one loses. 

On November 9, 2017, the editors of CEE Legal Matters sat down with a cross-section of experts from leading law firms and prominent in-house legal departments in Turkey to learn about the current state of affairs in that ever-changing market.

The past couple of years have been particularly challenging for Turkey’s M&A market owing to the domestic and global political climate and the weakened state of the Turkish economy. According to Deloitte’s annual M&A review published earlier this year, the M&A market in 2016 witnessed a total deal volume of USD 7.7 billion through 248 deals, resulting in the lowest deal volume since 2009. 

Reporting standards implemented within the frame of work conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for the prevention of base erosion and profit shifting has increased the reporting obligations of multinational enterprises (MNEs). 

The Deal: On June 20, 2017, CEE Legal Matters reported that the Esin Attorney Partnership and Baker McKenzie had advised Turkven Private Equity, the Akarlilar Family, and Mavi Giyim Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S., the Turkish jeans and jeans-wear company, on Mavi’s IPO, with White & Case advising underwriters Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and Is Yatirim. 

In The Corner Office we invite Managing Partners at law firms across the region to share information about their unique roles. The question this time around: What is your favorite question when interviewing a job applicant, and why?

Foreign investors willing to invest in Turkey and Turkish companies listed on foreign stock exchanges or which have a business relationship with foreign companies are under the obligation to comply with high-level international compliance requirements. As a result, these investors and Turkish companies are required to implement compliance programs which assist them and their employees to conduct transactions and actions in conformity with ethical principles, legislation, and regulatory provisions. 

“Parallel proceedings” are disputes between the same and/or related parties in the same or related disputes in different forums. Parallel proceedings usually arise when court and arbitration proceedings are commenced simultaneously to resolve the same case or a case that will in some way affect the other. Disputes arising out of shareholders’ agreements and articles of association, in particular, come under the spotlight in Turkey in the context of parallel proceedings.

In The Corner Office, we invite Senior and Managing Partners at law firms from across the region to share information about their careers, management styles, and strategies. For this issue, we asked them to describe their least favorite part of their jobs. 

The Turkish Law on Human Rights and Equality Institution of Turkey (the “Law”) entered into force on April 20, 2016, replacing its predecessor (the Law on Turkish Human Rights Institution).

The Turkish Law on Industrial Property (the “Law”) was published and entered into force on January 10, 2017.

The 2017 CEE Legal Matters General Summit took place at the Intercontinental Hotel in Warsaw on June 1-2, 2017, once again bringing together well over a hundred General Counsel and Heads of Legal from across Central and Eastern Europe for two full days (and one entertaining evening) of seminars, panel discussions, best practices review, and networking. This year’s event — the third annual, following the 2015 GC Summit in Budapest and the 2016 GC Summit in Istanbul — was the biggest and most successful yet.

On May 31 and June 1, 2017, CEE Legal Matters was proud to host a rare event: A gathering of those senior lawyers from each Central and Eastern European country identified by peers as being most influential, most important, most uniquely responsible for having created the country’s modern commercial legal market.

I have been doing deals in the CEE region in one capacity or another for over a decade now. My initial introduction to the region was during my time in New York and London with Cleary Gottlieb where I frequently instructed local law firms in the region on cross-border transactions.