Law Firm Turkey

ADMD also has offices in Turkish cities of Ankara, Antalya, Adana, Bursa and Izmir. However, due to Bar Association regulations these offices do not have branding and can not be directly announced as branches.

Number of Departments in Main Office

 

 

Names of partners

 

ADMD has a total of nine (9) partners; three (3) incorporating partners with shares of preference and six (6) salary partners based on their fee earnings:

Incorporator Partners

 

Attn. Mr. Orhan Yavuz Mavioglu

Attn. Ms. Eda Deniz

Attn. Ms. Duygu Alkan

 

• Number of assistants in department/office

 

Overall:

 

Office

Partner

Senior Associate

Junior Associate

Legal Interns

Staff

Total

Istanbul

4

2

4

5

5

20

Ankara

1

-

1

1

1

4

Adana

1

-

1

1

1

4

Antalya

1

-

1

-

1

3

Bursa

1

-

1

1

1

4

Izmir

1

-

1

1

1

4

Total

9

2

9

9

10

39

 

Departments:

 

ADMD Istanbul Office is providing services under its relevant departments stated below however the branches are full service and provide under one entity without departmentalization due to their size.

 

 

Lead by our partner Ms. Eda Deniz, our consulting department handles all sorts of inquiries regarding opinions requested on any legal subject where there is no transaction or litigation to handle and where the client requires review or due diligence on matters. This department also handles individual contractual drafting, review and modifications. 

 

 

 

Corporate Affairs department handles services in a wide scale from incorporation to liquidation for corporate entities in Turkey. This department also handles employment related issues and residency and work permit requirement for company personnel. Corporate Affairs team is lead by department chief Ms. Derya Cindioglu.

 

 

Services to Mergers & Acquisitions and other corporate transaction based financing; licensing and approval inquiries are dealt by our Deals and M&A department. This department is supervised by our managing partner Mr. Orhan Yavuz Mavioglu.

 

 

All sorts of dispute resolution services including arbitration, mediation and litigation are provided with a team lead by Ms. Duygu Alkan.

 

Departments

Total Number of Associates**

Consulting

4

Corporate Affairs

4

M&A

6

Litigation

6

 

**ASSOCIATES PROVIDE THEIR SERVICES TO MAXIMUM OF TWO DEPARTMENTS.

 

• Total number of fee-earners in department/office

 

There are nine (9) fee earners in ADMD.

 

• Significant arrivals and departures in the last year

 

Our firm have hired two (2) new associates in 2007 and two (2) of our previous legal interns have joined the firm as junior associates after obtaining their licenses.  Due to her requirement for more family time for her children one of our incorporating partners Ms. Hande Dilmen has left the firm to join British American Tobacco as an in house counsel. Senior associate Ms. Cindioglu was promoted to become a salary partner and department chief for corporate affairs to fill her position.

 

• Identify the department/office's best known personalities

 

Attn. Mr. Orhan Yavuz MAVİOĞLU LL.M. is the managing partner of ADMD. He was admitted to Istanbul Bar at 2000, and he also passed New York Bar exam at 2003. He was educated in: Columbia University Law School, U.S. Law (LL.M. 2004), Istanbul University Law School, Financial Law and Taxation (LL.M. 2003), Marmara University European Union Institute, European Union Law (LL.M. 2003), Marmara University, Law School (LL.B. 1999). He is also a registered patent and trademark representative (TPE, EPO 2001). He worked previously for: Altheimer & Gray (1999-2001), Istanbul; Arthur Andersen, Istanbul (2001-2002); Ernst & Young, Istanbul (2002-2003).

 

Attn. Ms. Eda DENİZ LL.M. is an incorporating partner of ADMD. She was admitted to Istanbul Bar at 2001. She was educated in: Bilgi University Law School, Economy Law (LL.M. 2003), University of California, Marketing and Business Extension Program (2000), Marmara University Law School (LL.B. 1999). She worked previously for: ESC Consulting (1997-1999); Arthur Andersen (2000-2002); Ernst & Young (2002-2004); Alkan & Deniz Law Office (2004-2005). 

 

Attn. Ms. Duygu ALKAN LL.M. is another incorporating partner of ADMD. She was admitted to Istanbul Bar at 2002. She was educated in: Istanbul Commerce University, International Trade and European Union Law (LL.M. 2004); Marmara University Law School (LL.B. 2001). She worked previously for: Ergun Ozer Law Office (2000-2002); Ernst & Young (2002-2004); Alkan & Deniz Law Office (2004-2005).

 

 

 

• Details of all law firm networks, alliances or associations of which your firm is a member

 

ADMD is a member of AEA (Association Europea de Abogados), ILA (International Lawyers Association) and please find some of the law offices and professional service companies that ADMD regularly works with in affiliation:

 

4. Annual review and client details

 

Within 2007 ADMD had enlarged its staff and transactional volume one step further. This year we have contributed to dealings worth over €200,000,000 earning fees over €2,500,000. We have hired two new associates making our Deals and M&A department stronger.

 

Our general client portfolio still keeps its balance of 30% local firms' earnings and 70% of earnings from foreign clients and foreign investors in Turkey. Since our Dispute Resolution departments' profits had also grown rapidly, the portion of DR services in our portfolio is now approximately 25% compared with, 40% from Deals and M&A, 15% from Consulting and 20% from Corporate Affairs.

 

We have served for 42 new Clients (22 new foreign direct investors) among 238 dealings within last year of which 48 are served corporate affairs' services annually.

 

Significant Deals in Various Practice Areas:

 

Please also note that we would like to specify some of the significant dealings and we used monetary volume as the main criteria. The deals below mentioned are all over €1,000,000 and most are relevant with more than one practice area therefore we tried to highlight those in subsections:

 

Administrative & Anti-Dumping:

 

Our firm filed one of the very rare administrative lawsuits in order to overrule an antidumping taxation in 2007 at the Council of State (being the highest court for administrative procedures). The impact value of the case is estimated to be €20,000,000 and even a higher impact it may have in legal market due to the rarity of the claim and inexperienced success before in Turkey.

 

Asset Finance & Securitization / Projects & Energy:

 

ADMD has been providing a key service for the financing and securitization of energy deals in Turkey. Most of the deals are focused on renewable energy production facilities and related assets including windmills and turbines. We have also assisted energy giants in Turkey for their licensing issues with Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA).

 

The most significant deals on the issue that we have assisted are the securitization of financing provided to energy producers and allowing the creditor to have an enforceable right on behalf of EMRA to execute a possible transfer of the license of the debtor company to a new corporation thus enabling the creditor to re-market the loan provided and secure its financing deal further. Since there are various complications on such regime ADMD attorneys have orchestrated a complicated deal of securitization by using an available but rarely used method titled commercial enterprise pledge along with other tools for the purpose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Asset Finance & Securitization / Aviation & Litigation:

 

ADMD has three aviation companies in its portfolio. We have assisted the financing and purchasing of private jets to two of these local clients. Since the aviation market is not very well developed and since financers in Turkey are not efficient in providing similar products, we have assisted our local clients to arrange for financing from Switzerland and France where private jet financing is more sophisticated. The value of these deals (5 in particular) had been over €35,000,000.

 

We have filed a major execution claim worth over €1,000,000 based on the debts of another aviation company located in Turkey, mainly active in airfreight for their spare-parts and maintenance services.

 

Commercial Property & Real Estate:

 

ADMD became one of the significant players in the real-estate market since we had been involved in two of the most valuable real-estate dealings realized last year.

 

The first significant deal that we have assisted to was the purchase, financing and closing for a real-estate in Levent (the most valuable district in Istanbul). The deal was worth around €80,000,000 and then was re-financed for over €120,000,000 for the construction of a commercial-residential mix use sky scraper. We have also started to negotiate for the branding and now our teams are working on the management and franchising of the hotel portion of the building.

 

The second significant deal is worth around €120,000,000 for the real-estate development project of a multiple use land in southern Turkey for construction of a complex of residences, hotels, shopping-malls on behalf of a Turkish holding group. Since the public announcement for the project has not been yet made and we are still working on the project the confidentiality level is even higher for client and the location therefore we can not address anything further on the subject. However, please note that the project contains details of public auctions sales, regular government land privatizations, private purchases, financing, re-financing, tourism incentives and joint ventures with foreign investment.

 

Competition & EU / Corporate and Commercial:

 

In 2007 we have filed two major applications to the Competition Authority. The first application was regarding the vertical agreements of distributors and sales channels. The relevant volume of such vertical sales was over €50,000,000 every year and the client holds over 50% of the relevant market. Since there were discrepancies in pricing due to special conditions and since the regulations on the subject were yet amended by the Competition Authority it was a hard task to complete however we have obtained negative clearance in a record short time due to the diligent work of our competition team.

 

The other application this time for approvals due to a share re-structuring and transfer operation which was also valued around €25,000,000. We have succeeded to close the transaction, also with relevant re-structuring and SPA work, within less than a month, again considered to be a record short time.

 

Dispute Resolution / Fraud and White Collar Crime / Employment:

 

In 2007 our dispute resolution team has generated approximately 25% of our overall revenues and increased its portion by 5%.

 

One of the significant reasons for this development is that we have executed voluminous claims for a new client a Turkish beverage distribution company. The total collections for the purposes exceeded €5,000,000. In addition we have executed and enforced claims worth over €15,000,000 for foreign clients and succeeded a collection rate over 70%.

 

We filed a very rare type of civil lawsuit and public complaint against one of the largest intermediary institutions dealing in the Istanbul Stock Exchange this year for a Turkish individual investor. The complaint includes allegations of fraud and inside trading and the compensatory remedies sought for are approximately €15,000,000. Since the issue is pending the confidentiality measures are even greater than above referred limiting us to provide any more details. However, please note that we have filed a similar claim two year ago for another client suffering from improper proceedings of an intermediary institution dealing in stock market and the results were devastating for the defendant company which then went bankrupt and had a major impact in capital markets.    

 

ADMD is also serving its clients in employment related disputes. Since the new labor laws introduced in 2003 made the applications of employment relations became even more strict in Turkey than in France, many of our corporate clients are suffering form various employment related claims. Specifically and most importantly ADMD had been providing its employee dispute resolution services to companies employing more than 10,000 employees. We have been assisting union related disputes along with executive employment issues for instance for EGL worth more than €1,000,000 of claims only for this year in total.  

 

Mergers & Acquisitions / Privatization / Project Financing: 

 

ADMD's backbone for its strength and expertise is dependent on the Deals and M&A department. This year we have finalized deals worth over €250,000,000. Most of the deals that we assisted to were M&A's and project finances and privatizations. Others were complex re-structuring deals either for management or for shareholding structure or both and joint venture incorporations.

 

Our M&A practice was focused on mining industry this year and we have completed over €300,000,000 worth of mine field related (marble in particular) corporate acquisitions by local and foreign investors from other local incorporators. €50,000,000 deal in marble industry was the most significant among those deals including acquisitions. 

  

ADMD assisted a client for the purchase of a textiles factory in Adana and an agriculture field for cotton production in Antep. The deals together were worth approximately €18,000,000 and had complications due to land volume restrictions for foreign investors. We have filed for various approvals and re-structured the deal through a new subsidiary incorporated without any foreign investors and securitized the dividends and asset rights with temporary share transfers and additional options for foreign investors.

 

Our firm assisted to four different clients in five different privatization deals (real-estate, ports, production facilities) last year. Unfortunately none have succeeded to be awarded public tenders however the deals were worth over €100,000,000 and we have provided due diligence and tender related services to those clients.

 

Corporate and Commercial:

 

ADMD assisted for the incorporation of 32 new corporate entities in 2007. Our office serves as supervision authority for most of our clients' corporate dealings either for management or for operations.

 

The most significant corporate dealing was the restructuring of a logistics company this year. We are now amending all corporate structure including the type amendments, capital, shareholding and management alterations as a first phase of a globalization and an IPO to follow. The services are still pending and after re-structuring the client will become a major player in logistics market with an operational capital over €9,000,000.

 

 

 

Telecommunications:

 

Among various telecommunication service companies, our firm has been serving sub-marine fiber optic capacity providing companies in Turkey. We have been assisting telecommunications infrastructure clients for obtaining permits for projects in order to connect the Turkish data flow with international carriers though sub-marine cables. Since such projects are unique we have been assisting many various public institutions and authorities as well in order for them to create necessary procedure for such a submission. We have succeeded with the project preparations within this year and obtained pre-approvals and now we are working to finalize the project within next year which will worth over €80,000,000 and will immediately double the broadband in Turkey accordingly.