Şengün & Partners Law Firm Founder and Şengün Group Chairman of the Board, Lawyer Nedim Korhan Şengün, shared insights about the new global law organization CCS Law House, which is yet to be announced to the public.
Interview: Ezgi Aydoğanoğlu, Selin Ünverdi
Hello Mr. Korhan, we actually had plans to conduct a lengthy interview with you regarding the business world and the legal sector. However, upon hearing about your plans to establish a global legal organization, we shifted our focus to CCS Law House. Initially, CCS Law House was envisioned as an international network designed within the Şengün Group. Could you explain how the structure evolved over time, if it’s not confidential?
Hello Ms. Ezgi, Ms. Selin. Let’s not call it confidential, let’s say it’s still closed to the public, yes, you are right, it was a network and we are still working on establishing an international network with Turkish origins, but I always had the idea of creating a global legal organization, but due to daily intensities, the works that made me happy didn’t happen, so we turned the route to the network, but on the other hand, we formed a special team that would create a Global Legal Solution Center outside the office. To be exact, we formed a special closed working group three years ago, which included Turks and foreigners from different nations, and they started working. It was a closed structure that only I knew in the office, sometimes special relations were involved, sometimes we might have exaggerated the secrecy.
Isn’t it difficult to establish such a structure in the Turkish legal world?
Actually, we are not establishing this structure in the Turkish legal world. It would be more accurate to say; we are starting this structure from Turkey with Turkish origins. It will be a global structure in which Turkey will be very active. Actually, my main goal was to establish a global law structure similar to those in the Anglo-American world, my colleagues shouldn’t be offended, but there is no such structure in our country, there are also some legal difficulties, but in the end, such a structure does not exist. As Şengün & Partners, we are a structure with very intense and comprehensive global connections and collaborations, there are structures like us in Turkey, there are offices where foreign global offices directly collaborate locally, there are offices that work intensively with foreign clients or foreign law firms, but there is no known global structure. The goal is to establish this.
How did the foundation of this idea come about?
As I said, we are involved with foreign capital, foreign clients, foreign law firms, we are a member of Legal 500, the real breakthrough, let’s say, happened when we brought ALSP to Turkey. Because we sent emails to approximately 40.000 law offices worldwide, this was an enormous effort and cost, to give a partial example, we received responses and made agreements from Egypt, Italy, Portugal, Germany, UAE, Russia, Costa Rica, Azerbaijan, England. But the most important thing was that it created an unprecedented vast network for us, it created a huge network beyond our existing network that would allow us to reach every region of the world comfortably, and this idea matured in me right here, we immediately started with a team that gave confidentiality commitments outside the office, the team developed over time according to need. These works were not shared within the office. We carried out everything externally, some friends from different legal fields, faculty members joined, we consulted with foreign institutions that would be part of the system. We can now say that the works are completed, I think we will share it with the public in June or July.
Can you detail the functioning of the structure?
Of course, I can talk within the framework of trade secrets, a global structure is usually formed by merging offices or using the Franchise method, Polycentric or Swiss Verein methods, actually hybrid methods are also used, we also applied the last two models I mentioned by synthesizing a bit, we tried to establish a special international structure outside the existing structures, we are also trying to bring new habits to the system, the site is being worked on, we will apply an advertising ban regarding our work, clients, and all our operations, there will be a relaxed environment, we will implement special consultancy models.
Of course, we don’t have the chance to reach 100-year-old 200-year-old Anglo-American offices all at once, I won’t say we will be the same. It is being established with a different method, a different system, a different style. Finally, I can only say this. Turkish advocacy is very sufficient and capable at the point it has reached. What is needed is boldness, courage, and self-confidence. We have this as well.
I think that’s enough, it should be sufficient…
What you have shared with us about a structure that has not yet been made public is very valuable. Thank you.
