Barış Can Polat, LLM

Barış is a partner and head of the corporate & commercial team at Polat & Partners. Before joining Polat & Partners, he worked for nearly 10 years in one of the most well-recognized law firms in Turkey as a partner and head of the corporate division.

Barış has experience in M&A, cross-border projects, joint ventures, general corporate matters and commercial agreements. He specialises in advising foreign investors acquiring or establishing businesses. In addition, his department provides the firm’s clients with company secretarial services, compliance, regulatory and corporate governance advice, and day to day legal support to businesses.

Barış is also a registered trademark attorney.

Barış’s recent experience includes:

• Acting for G4S International and UK based security firm G4S, in connection with carving out and transferring its CIT business to a global competitor,
• Advising Rolls Royce, in connection with the separation and sale of its marine business in Turkey;
• Advising Takii & Co (a leading seed company) in its multi-million euro acquisition of a Turkish seed company, including handling all of the public sector compliance and licensing issues;
• Advising Axa France with local license requirements for operating in the Turkish insurance market, as well as reassurance agreements with local and foreign insurance companies;
• Advising Agrimatco Group in connection with a transaction to sell 40% of the shares in its Turkish subsidiary to an Asian leading agriculture company;
• Advising a multinational health company operating in Turkey in connection with termination of an umbrella insurance agreement with Ak Sigorta and representing the client in court proceedings against Ak Sigorta;
• Acting for Sequoia Capital, a major funder of start-ups (including WhatsApp and Google), in acquiring a stake in a Turkish tech entity;
• Advising Eaton Plc, a multinational power management company, in relation to the operations of its subsidiaries in Turkey on all aspects of corporate and compliance matters;
• Advising Nokia on the restructuring of its operations and business model in Turkey to ensure capital markets and corporate compliance for its listed entity and providing support in relation to ongoing corporate law issues;
• Advising Alcatel Lucent’s Turkish subsidiary, which is a listed entity on the Istanbul Stock Exchange, in relation to corporate governance and capital market legislation compliance matters;
• Advising Room Mate Hotels (a Spanish boutique hotel group) in relation to establishing a Turkish entity and leasing three hotel buildings in Istanbul together with managing and obtaining all relevant licenses from the local authorities;
• Advising a listed Canadian company Silvermet on its JV project in Turkey and assisting with restructuring and management issues;
• Advising CompuGROUP on the multimillion dollar acquisition of a Turkish medical software provider owning the largest infrastructure for health information and electronic reimbursement systems in Turkey;
• Advising Soho House (a UK private members club) with the establishment of three Turkish subsidiaries and related compliance and personnel work;
• Acting as the client partner in Turkey for Citco Group Limited, a worldwide group of independent corporate service providers serving the world’s elite hedge funds, private equity and real estate firms, institutional banks, Global 1000 companies and high net worth individuals. The work involved providing advice on a number of corporate issues involving reputable foreign capital Turkish companies.

Education: Istanbul Bilgi University (LLB) – Bournemouth University (LLM)
Admitted to bar: 2010
Membership: Istanbul Bar Association
Languages: Turkish, English