May Law Office > Istanbul, Turkey > Firm Profile

May Law Office > Firm Profile

The firm: MAY Law Office was established by Melike Akan Yüksel, a highly regarded attorney and an expert in her respective fields, with more than 17 years’ experience and a comprehensive academic and professional background. MAY Law Office is a boutique full-service law firm providing high quality assistance and distinguished services combined with tailor made legal solutions, striving to exceed the expectations of its clients in variety of legal and regulatory matters in all aspects of Turkish law. MAY offers continuous and a broad range of legal services, together with strong expertise and credibility and the ability to lead and manage international matters and seamless integrated services across multiple disciplines to multinational companies, foreign and domestic companies, private equity companies, holdings, domestic and foreign banks and financial institutions, multinational organizations and individuals since its establishment. MAY provides a wide range of legal services, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate and contracts, banking and project finance, restructuring, technology and media, energy, litigation and dispute resolution, debt collection, competition, intellectual property, data protection, real estate and employment.

Our approach: MAY is built upon the philosophy of putting clients first. MAY advises its clients with a client-oriented perspective on all of the above mentioned legal issues regarding domestic and cross-border transactions, multi-specialism and its international approach. MAY maintains the highest professional and ethical standards during the course of its works on a value-added, cost-effective basis, as determined by the client. MAY’s dynamic and forward thinking, leading experts in their areas are equipped to handle a broad range of matters and ready to use their talents, knowledge and experience to understand, anticipate and satisfy clients’ individual legal needs across their industries. By being a boutique full-service law firm, MAY’s solutions are tailored to clients’ requirements, services are provided in timely manner and involvement of partner level in projects is of the essence, which allows MAY to pay its clients personal attention, ability to responsiveness and establish trusting relationships.

Main practice areas
Corporate and commercial law and contracts: MAY’s corporate and commercial law services focus mainly but are not limited to drafting, negotiating and reviewing agreements of various natures, including service, licensing, franchising, distributorship, sales and joint venture agreements. MAY is also highly involved in corporate governance, including providing advice on board of directors’ meetings, holding ordinary and extraordinary general assembly meetings and managing capital increases or decreases from a corporate and tax perspective, exit strategies and stock option agreements, business organization. MAY provides daily basis legal consultancy services to many local or worldwide known corporations regarding establishing their corporate existence in the Turkish market as well as during their post incorporation matters followed by their operational needs in the day to day business.

Mergers and acquisitions and investments: MAY’s founding partner, Melike Akan Yüksel, is one of the most respected lawyers in the sector with her broad experience in consultancy services to her clients in relation to investments and M&A transactions. MAY represents majority and minority owners of private corporations, local and foreign investors, private equities, angel investors and venture capital clients with its well-established unique practice in cross-border and local mergers and acquisitions, various types of asset and stock transfers and wide range of investment transactions, particularly in the technology area. With its reputable experience, MAY advises across key sectors such as technology, energy, port operations, infrastructure, banking, insurance, financial services, real estate, telecommunications, media and communications.

Banking and finance: MAY is one of the leading law offices in Turkey which has specific expertise and extensive experience in banking and finance. MAY plays a major role advising banks, financial institutions and companies in energy, infrastructure and real estate sectors on project finance, asset finance, acquisition finance and has a strong record in restructuring and refinancing facilities.

Data protection, E-commerce and information technologies: MAY has accumulated unrivalled know-how through years of experience in information technologies, including technology and software licensing, copyright, internet law, regulatory compliance, privacy and security, e-commerce, licensing, software procurement, mobile applications and the associated regulatory and compliance matters.

MAY has developed a solid reputation in providing legal consultancy services to web-based and technology based companies with a holistic approach covering preparing the legal infrastructure of e-commerce practices, preparing B2B and B2C contracts, web-based value added service agreements, services of internet content providers and hosting providers, follow-up on the infringements that occur via the Internet.

MAY also offers data management and data protection legal services within the scope of the compliance processes with the Turkish Personal Data Protection Law.

Employment law: MAY also provides consultancy services as well as representing the clients in lawsuits on all aspects of individual and collective labour law. MAY’s team provides all kinds of legal services, including drafting and negotiating employment contracts, employee relations of the senior management, advise on employees’ obligations of non-compete, confidentiality and loyalty clauses, relocation of the employees and amending employment and bonus agreements, conducting termination process of the employment contracts.

Intellectual property: MAY provides services in creating, acquiring, divesting and protecting intellectual property rights and assets in Turkey covering drafting and negotiating licensing and technology transfer agreements.

Dispute resolution and debt collection: MAY provides full-service assistance in a variety of complex local and international disputes arising from commercial contracts by representing its clients in litigation, arbitration, mediation procedures as well as dispute avoidance and enforcement of judgments and arbitral awards.