Lexist Law Firm > Istanbul, Turkey > Firm Profile

Lexist Law Firm
Özdilek AVM River Plaza No: 13 Kat: 22
Levent 34330 Besiktas/Istanbul
Turkey

Turkey > Project finance/projects Tier 3

Regulatory stalwart Lexist Law Firm specialises in advising on projects involving highly regulated industries, including energy, transport and healthcare. The group is also active in privatisation transactions, where it is currently advising the Turkish Privatisation Administration on the privatisation of three port assets. Murat Erbilen spearheads a group that includes co-founding partner Eyüp Kul, as well as Mesut Kaya, who focuses on energy, PPPs and privatisation work.

Practice head(s):

Murat Erbilen

Other key lawyers:

Eyüp Kul; Mesut Kaya; Duygu Öztürk Dinçer

Testimonials

‘The Lexist team is very professional and handles all our legal work. I like its flexibility and wide range of experience and knowledge. We are working with the team on many high-profile projects in Turkey and in Europe.’

‘Eyüp Kul is our main lawyer. He is always available for us and he is a natural negotiator. Partner Murat Erbilen is very good too and extremely patient.’

‘One of the best teams we have worked with: it sees the bigger picture, understands the commercial pressures, and is mindful of our budget. We work with it on a complex project involving multiple parties entering/exiting the deals, sector-specific regulatory hurdles and extensive project restructuring.’

‘The team manages all negotiations quickly and efficiently. We trust Lexist with all our projects, corporate and disputes work in highly regulated sectors such as construction and healthcare. Lexist is different because with this team the work and client relationship always comes first.’

‘Lexist always delivers. They avoid disputes. We can rely on them for any kind of work.’

‘Partner Mesut Kaya is commercially aware of the bigger picture.’

‘The Lexist team is unique for us because it has young lawyers who have worked in companies as lawyers. This means that it is better at understanding our side of the problem and can explain legal matters to our board members in a way that they can understand.’

‘Murat Erbilen and Mesut Kaya are the partners leading our projects. They are both accomplished projects lawyers and are very patient.’

Key clients

Directorate of privatisation Administration

TVF İFM Gayrimenkul İnşaat ve Yönetim A.Ş. (a subsidiary of the Turkish Wealth Fund)

Work highlights

  • Advising TVF İFM Gayrimenkul İnşaat ve Yönetim Anonim Şirketi on the development of the Istanbul Financial Centre, a project to create a financial hub for the region.
  • Advising the Turkish Privatisation Administration on the privatisation of three port assets.

Turkey > Banking, finance and capital markets Tier 4

Benefitting from its strong footprint in highly regulated industries, Lexist Law Firm’s banking and finance group has a significant emphasis on regulatory matters, particularly fintech-related issues. The team also handled a significant volume of equity offerings on behalf of issuers over the past year, with a focus on the healthcare, consumer products and energy spheres. Department head Murat Erbilen possesses broad experience in financial services, including project finance, payment services and Islamic finance, while Mesut Kaya specialises in regulatory work. Meysa Yamakoğlu is also noted.

Practice head(s):

Murat Erbilen

Other key lawyers:

Mesut Kaya; Meysa Yamakoğlu; Sevde Nur Paksoy

Testimonials

‘The team is experienced and well-equipped.’

‘Individuals possess strong relationship-management skills, and our company and third parties are well-managed.’

‘Lexist Law Firm has great associates that are capable in various fields of law. The team’s efficiency in delivering the legal product is exceptional.’

‘Murat Erbilen has an exceptional commercial knowledge of the banking/finance industry. He has a great portfolio of clients, including the most creditable banks and financial establishments.’

‘The team is strong and young and lawyers work very hard to meet our deadlines. They had to write a new law, and get it passed for our project, so everything was riding on their performance.’

‘Murat Erbilen is a tower of confidence. Mesut Kaya is vital to team motivation.’

Key clients

TVF İFM Gayrimenkul İnşaat ve Yönetim, a subsidiary of the Turkish Wealth Fund

Work highlights

  • Advised on the setup of a digital bank, including obtaining establishment and operation licences for multiple companies.
  • Advised a subsidiary of the Turkish Wealth Fund on the establishment of the new Istanbul Financial Center, which required new legislation and extensive negotiations with the regulators.
  • Advised several related entities on their successive engineering and energy sector IPOs.

Turkey > Energy Tier 4

Led by Murat Erbilen, Lexist Law Firm‘s energy practice handles a wide range of issues across the oil and gas and renewables industries. Mesut Kaya is noted for his broad knowledge of nuclear power projects, often advising on corporate governance issues. Kadir Özdemir regularly assists project owners and contractors with project agreements in relation to wind power projects.

Practice head(s):

Murat Erbilen

Other key lawyers:

Mesut Kaya; Kadir Özdemir; Eyüp Kul; Duygu Öztürk

Testimonials

‘Lexist handles a variety of work related to energy projects, including corporate work, government work and strategic work.They can handle many areas in a professional manner.’

‘Murat Erbilen has a great team of energy and corporate associate lawyers, Kadir Özdemir and Duygu Öztürk. They are patient and strategic thinkers.’

‘Lexist delivers consistent commercial-focused legal advice.’

‘Mesut Kaya was consistently on top of everything. His colleague Kadir Özdemir is also very competent.’

Key clients

Turkish Energy Market Regulatory Authority

Work highlights

  • Advised an oil and gas client on various legal structures for major infrastructure investment strategies in Turkey.
  • Representing the Turkish Energy Regulator in an ICSID arbitration.

Turkey > Real estate and construction Tier 4

Over the past year Lexist Law Firm has advised on over 100 lease agreements alongside its work on project development and contentious matters. Co-founding partner Eyüp Kul spearheads the practice and combines experience in corporate transactions, construction, infrastructure and dispute resolution. Projects and administrative law partner Mesut Kaya is also noted.

Practice head(s):

Eyüp Kul

Other key lawyers:

Testimonials

‘Lexist is an expert in real estate development; from permits to leasing, construction to selling.’

‘Our main contacts are Murat Erbilen and Mesut Kaya. Both are straightshooters. That is a style we prefer from our lawyers as our projects are already very difficult to organise.’

‘The Lexist lawyers can do anything we need. It is a one-stop shop for us, so we do not need to chase other law firms and we only deal with one team. We work mainly with Mesut Kaya. He has been with us since the start of this long project.’

‘The team is very large with experts in construction and also real estate. Our projects need both.’

‘Mesut Kaya is our daily contact and he is very capable, driving a dedicated team of associates. We really like working with these lawyers and trust them.’

Work highlights

  • Advising the developer of the new Istanbul Financial Centre on all commercial lease agreements and building master management and individual plans.
  • Advising several clients in the fast-moving consumer goods sphere on their mixed-use commercial projects, including advising on land development, construction and leasing.

Turkey > Dispute resolution Tier 6

Lexist Law Firm secured key roles in a string of high-profile and multi-jurisdictional arbitrations over the past year, including both investor-state and commercial cases. On the litigation side, the group kept busy advising on a mix of construction, bankruptcy and shareholder disputes, among other matters. Department co-heads Eyüp Kul and Murat Erbilen are highlighted together for their ‘great combination of technical savvy and commercial acumen’.

Practice head(s):

Eyüp Kul; Murat Erbilen

Other key lawyers:

Neşem Nazlı Aksoy

Testimonials

‘Lexist provides us with all kinds of legal support, with the best quality and conditions. We are very satisfied with the legal services we have received so far. Our company is very fortunate to receive positive results thanks to the team’s superior efforts in the legal processes they follow on our behalf.’

‘Eyüp Kul and Neşem Nazlı Aksoy make great contributions to us in the field of commercial and construction law. We are grateful to these lawyers who have high ethical values.’

‘Lawyers are smart, hard-working and responsive. The firm is known, yet lawyers actually lawyer which is important. This means they represent a rare combination of a national counsel who understand and meet the expectations of a firm like ours and the international clients we serve.’

‘Eyüp Kul and Murat Erbilen are the two partners that I have worked with the most and they are a great combination of technical savvy and commercial acumen. They are extremely good to work with: smart, frank and collaborative.’

‘Murat Erbilen stands out as a specialist in dispute resolution. He brings a perfect command of Turkish law as well as an international perspective to dispute resolution. It is a pleasure to work with Murat.’

‘The Lexist team brings dedication, responsiveness and an excellent collaborative spirit to the engagement. It is consistently a pleasure working with the team and the quality of its work product is very high. It has an excellent understanding of the Turkish market and navigates it with ease.’

‘Murat Erbilen is a knowledgeable, responsive colleague whose advice can be consistently relied on. In addition, he is a pleasure to work with.’

‘Eyüp Kul works on the legal issues in a very detailed way. He is open to discuss every detail. It is always easy to reach him and the team. He has a very cooperative mindset, and reassures and gives confidence that the dispute is well-handled.’

Key clients

The Republic of Turkey – Savings Insurance Deposit Fund

The Republic of Turkey – Turkish Energy Market Regulatory Authority

Work highlights

  • Acted as local counsel to the Republic of Turkey, as the respondent, in a high-profile ICSID arbitration case initiated by Ipek Investment.
  • Represented an oil and gas company, as the respondent, in an arbitration under the rules of the London Court of International Arbitration.
  • Represented a construction client, as claimant, in a $500m high-profile receivables dispute over a new mixed-use project in Istanbul.

Lexist is an independent full-service Turkish law firm with offices in Istanbul. Disputes (Litigation & Arbitration), Corporate/M&A, Banking & Finance, Capital Markets, Energy and Projects are the standout practices of the firm, particularly concerning large-scale infrastructure and real estate investments. The team is legal solutions-focused with a business savvy, practical mindset. Highly regulated sectors dominate the client portfolio, such as financial services (digital banking especially), nuclear and renewable energy, healthcare, TMT and construction.

Clients involve their Lexist team of regulatory specialists, corporate lawyers, litigators and arbitrators from the very start of a project to ensure the best legal and business strategy is in place. These projects are both in Turkey and abroad (notably SE Europe and the Middle East).

Types of work undertaken
Banking and finance: Lexist has extensive experience handling bilateral and syndicated credit facilities, secured and unsecured credit facilities, bridge facilities, restructuring, refinancing, acquisition and leveraged financing, Islamic financing and financial restructuring. Regulatory advice in the digital financial markets and payment systems is a niche.

Capital markets: Lexist covers the full spectrum of capital markets transactions including IPOs, SPOs, debt and equity offerings, medium-term note programmes and Rule 144A, Regulation S offerings and Islamic finance solutions, among others.

Corporate, commercial and M&A: Lexist advises a diverse client base, utilizing a sector-focused approach, on a range of corporate and commercial matters as well as on the full spectrum of M&A transactions.

Dispute resolution: Lexist’s dispute resolution expertise stands out with its strong track record in complex litigation and international arbitration. The high profile strong arbitration team’s particular strengths are international investment and commercial arbitration. The team has successfully represented clients in numerous institutional and ad-hoc arbitration processes (ICSID, ICC and LCIA).

Project finance and projects: Lexist provides full-scope legal consultancy services for high value infrastructure projects, PPPs, BOTs and privatizations across highly regulated complex sectors. The team has won numerous awards for its billion-dollar highway financings and the privatization of the Turkish national lottery.

Energy: Lexist advises on power plant, pipeline and licensing projects utilising conventional and renewable sources. The team represents ambitious foreign and Turkish public and private entities and is uniquely placed to provide full-scope legal services on a wide array of regulatory, business and disputed matters. Nuclear and wind energy are niches.

Real estate: Lexist represents domestic and foreign investors and public institutions in all areas of real estate law, including construction (in respect of FIDIC based contracts or other EPC/turnkey contracts), the rental and management of complexes such as real estate mixed use development projects, shopping and business centres. Real estate and construction-related disputes, whether international or domestic, account for a significant part of the Firm’s litigation and international arbitration practices.

Department Name Email Telephone
Dispute Resolution Dr. Eyüp Kul e.kul@lexist.com.tr 0090212270004
Corporate/M&A, Financial Services Dr. Murat Erbilen m.erbilen@lexist.com.tr 0090212270004
Energy, Infrastructure Mesut Kaya m.kaya@lexist.com.tr 0090212270004
Photo Name Position Profile
Murat Erbilen photo Dr Murat Erbilen Partner
Mesut Kaya photo Mr Mesut Kaya Partner
Eyüp Kul photo Dr Eyüp Kul Founding Partner
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