With preparations for the 2025 CEE Legal Matters Turkiye General Counsel Summit in full swing, Ozbek Attorney Partnership Managing Partners Deniz Senvar Pekin and Selen Ibrahimoglu Gures share their thoughts about the upcoming event and what they're looking forward to the most.
CEELM: Why did your firm decide to participate in the CEE Legal Matters Turkish GC Summit?
Gures: We have been active in the market for quite some time – our initial partnership dates back to 1972. As foreign investment into Turkiye has grown, our firm has supported companies in navigating that journey. Advising corporations on FDI for almost three decades, we’ve watched many general counsels develop from early career lawyers into essential members of their organizations. In parallel, the legal and regulatory landscape has evolved quickly, sometimes dramatically, and our role has shifted with it. Today, we see ourselves as critical partners to GCs.
Against that backdrop, the CEE Legal Matters General Counsel Summit is an excellent opportunity to reconnect with long-standing colleagues and build relationships with newer peers who have since become general counsels. Meeting them, understanding their challenges in a rapidly changing world, and exchanging perspectives is genuinely exciting for us. We value, and make the most of, every opportunity like the CEE Legal Matters General Counsel Summit.
Pekin: Additionally, while Istanbul is a major European hub, it’s still surprisingly rare to run into colleagues organically here. Especially post-COVID, in-person meetings feel both fascinating and energizing in an era dominated by webinars and e-panels, where meaningful connections can be scarce. Our profession remains a dynamic one, and exchanging views face-to-face, whether in panels, presentations, or informal conversations, is invaluable. Bringing people together in Istanbul is no small feat, and this General Counsel Summit is an excellent gathering for that purpose.
CEELM: What are you most looking forward to at the GC Summit?
Gures: We’ve sponsored events in the past, but this is our first CEE Legal Matters General Counsel Summit, and we’re genuinely excited to meet your team and new faces, particularly those who have helped shape the legal profession over the long term. Crucially, tackling topics like legal tech and compliance will be especially valuable; these exchanges are precious.
Furthermore, the impact goes beyond Turkiye. Re-examining long-standing areas such as compliance is very much the name of the game these days and, with Istanbul sitting at the crossroads of East and West, many investment flows meet and interact here; achieving a “harmonious interface,” while adopting to new technologies, is critical. Given the pace of change in the legal sphere and the complexity of compliance challenges, GCs often need external support, if only because their teams may lack the time and bandwidth to handle everything at speed. Being able to have high-quality exchanges about these matters will be of great value.
Pekin: We’re looking to identify the common challenges we all face in practice. For example, we’re keen to discuss recent jurisprudence from Turkiye's higher courts and how GCs are applying some of these precedents we've seen come to the fore. Lately, we’ve also seen significant administrative penalties imposed by various regulators on large companies. We want to connect with GCs to understand how they’re addressing these challenges and arriving at practical solutions.
We’re also curious about the balance between litigation and arbitration, what share of disputes is now going to arbitration versus court, and why? Catching up with peers about these issues and what they generally encounter on a day-to-day basis helps us all see where we can support one another.
CEELM: What discussions or topics do you expect GCs will focus on this year?
Pekin: Unsurprisingly, AI-related legal questions will most likely be front and center: How safe is it? How often should we use it? Will it replace certain tasks? At a recent summit in Lisbon, we saw how intensely the profession is engaging with these issues. I expect a great deal of curiosity around the ways AI is redefining legal work.
Another major focus will be how GCs respond to increasingly high administrative penalties. Strategies for prevention, mitigation, and defense should draw a lot of attention.
Gures: I’d add whistleblower protections and the broader culture of transparency. With the adoption of legal tech, both in-house and by external counsel, the traditional ways of managing compliance risk are being reshaped. I expect whistleblowing frameworks to be a particularly interesting area for exchange. Beyond new detection tools, the overall approach to compliance will prompt multidisciplinary discussions about risk. Managing these risks will definitely be a compelling topic for GCs.
As businesses race to keep up with technological developments, moving fast, experimenting with new models, in-house counsel are constantly tackling novel challenges. We’re eager to explore how best to collaborate with them in that environment.
CEELM: Why should GCs make sure to attend the Summit?
Gures: GCs sometimes may feel as lone wolves within their organizations. Even with local or regional teams, the role carries unique responsibilities and significant accountability when things go wrong. External counsel meet frequently across different settings, but GCs, in contrast, often have fewer such opportunities. The GC role itself, with its Anglo-Saxon roots, has only become common in Turkiye over the past few decades so, naturally, any chance there is for practitioners to meet and exchange their experiences holds great significance.
Connecting, listening, and exchanging with peers, recognizing that others face similar issues, provides not only professional value but also meaningful emotional support. These summits also shape how the broader legal market functions, not just that of attorneys. The actions GCs take in Istanbul influence how regulators engage with the market, creating a consequential feedback loop. GCs are, in many ways, the cornerstone of the entire system.
Pekin: GCs should attend to connect with peers, hear each other’s real-world stories, and discuss such real-world challenges. Working in partially siloed environments day in and day out can be limiting; building collegial relationships and sharing best practices, as well as problems and hurdles, is valuable in itself. Moreover, hearing how others overcome obstacles sparks new approaches and solutions. This is important not only for GCs but for external counsel as well – there’s significant mutual benefit to be gained from attending the summit.
