Sezin Elçin Cengiz > Copartners > Istanbul, Turkey > Lawyer Profile

Sezin Elçin Cengiz

sezin.elcincengiz@copartners.com.tr

Work Department

Competition / Antitrust

Position

Partner

Career

With 23 years of experience in both Turkish Competition Authority and private practice, Sezin represents clients in a full array of competition/antitrust matters, including merger control and coordination of multi-jurisdictional filings, cartel and dominance investigations, behavioural matters and compliance programs. Her international experience and perspective contribute to her expertise in addressing antitrust risk and compliance across various industries.

Sezin has been involved in hundreds of merger/acquisition/JV cases to date, both on the Turkish Competition Authority side – reviewing and analysing merger filings as a case handler – and on the law firm side preparing and making the merger submissions on behalf of the clients. Aside from Türkiye, Sezin has significant experience in multi-jurisdictional merger filing analysis, as well as coordinating merger control filings on a global scale.

Throughout her career, Sezin has been involved in a number of landmark competition investigations in Türkiye, successfully representing investigated parties before the Turkish Competition Authority. Aside from assisting the clients with establishing the underlying facts (internal investigations) and developing the most viable defence strategy, she also provides strategic advice for the optimal outcomes through leniency applications, settlement negotiations and the use of commitment mechanism.

Prior to establishing COPARTNERS, Sezin served as the head of the Competition/Antitrust practice at a global law firm, White & Case, in Türkiye for 12 years. Previously, she worked for the Turkish Competition Authority for 10 years as a senior case handler/expert in competition law. During her tenure at the Turkish Competition Authority, she oversaw inquiries, supervised teams conducting dawn raids, and conducted pioneering evaluations of mergers and acquisitions, exemption/negative clearance requests, and privatization cases with a specific focus on the banking, insurance, tourism, education, land, air and sea transportation, ports, and pharmaceutical sectors.

Languages

Turkish, English