Looking for a lawyer in Ataşehir?

Our Bakırköy-based office also handles Ataşehir files; the process begins with the assessment at the first meeting and runs through to the appeal stages with the same team. A direct connection to our Bakırköy office is possible by Marmaray with a metro change.

Because of the businesses around the financial centre, employment law and commercial contract disputes are heavy here.

What do we handle in Ataşehir?

Employment and social security, compensation, enforcement, family and divorce law are the headings that stand out in our Ataşehir files. We take files in other areas of law as well; which court has jurisdiction becomes clear at the first meeting, according to the nature of the dispute.

Main neighbourhoods

We take files from every neighbourhood within Ataşehir, and above all from Barbaros, Küçükbakkalköy, İçerenköy, Ferhatpaşa, Yenişehir.

How does the meeting work?

You can have the first meeting at our office in Bakırköy in person or by video. If you send your documents digitally beforehand, we complete the preliminary assessment before the meeting and set out the roadmap in a single session.

Employment files around the financial centre

The concentration of office towers along the Barbaros and Küçükbakkalköy corridor gives Ataşehir files a distinct character: a significant share of the disputes are between white-collar employees and their employers, and they raise different problems from the classic claim for employment entitlements.

Three headings come up most often. The first is bonus and commission claims: even where the contract says "at the employer’s discretion", a bonus paid regularly and by defined criteria may count as part of the wage and enter the severance calculation. The second is non-competition agreements: to be valid they must be limited in time, geography and subject matter and must not unfairly endanger the employee’s economic future; clauses drafted without limits can be narrowed or held invalid by the court. The third is proving overtime: entry and exit records, timestamps on corporate email and computer session logs can be more decisive in these files than witness evidence.

On the commercial side, current account disputes arising from service and consultancy contracts stand out; mediation is a condition of bringing those actions.

A practical note: A large proportion of employees in these towers sign a release on leaving. A release is valid only if it is drawn up at least one month after the date of termination, with the amounts of each entitlement written out one by one, and the payment made through a bank. A release signed without those conditions does not extinguish the entitlement.

Which courthouse will your case be heard in?

Disputes within the boundaries of Ataşehir are heard at the Istanbul Anatolian Courthouse (Kartal), the central courthouse for the Anatolian side. It houses the civil courts of first instance, commercial, family, labour, civil courts of peace, enforcement, criminal courts of first instance and serious crime courts together with the public prosecutor’s office; the enforcement offices are on the same site. As it is one of the busiest courthouses in Turkey, the intervals between hearings can be longer than elsewhere.

Administrative disputes (demolition, permits, tax, personnel matters) are not heard there but in the Istanbul administrative and tax courts.