CAGA & CAGA

THE FIRM

Founded in 1916, Çaga & Çaga is the oldest and one of the largest, the most prominent and boutique type law firms of Turkey with high international repute. While preserving discretion, seriousness, the firm's esteem before legal profession as well as quality and professional expertise, Çaga & Çaga is proud of rendering a tailor-made legal service in Turkish, English, German, French, Italian and Arabic.
The firm has a good command of comparative law especially with regard to the German, Swiss, Italian, French, U.K. and U.S. legal systems and retains also well established links with significant law firms of Europe and the U.S. Current senior partner Barbaros Çaga being both a lecturer of law and a member of TUSIAD (Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen Association), the leading NGO of Turkey, the firm is able to approach matters from all diverse angles.

ABOUT OUR PRACTICE

Çaga & Çaga concentrates on the so called “Business Law” (which includes corporate and commercial law, tax law and employment law); the media and entertainment law; foreign direct investments; dispute resolution (litigation and arbitration); aviation, shipping and transport; capital markets law; mergers and acquisitions; construction and real estate law; banking and finance; intellectual property; e-commerce; competition and EU laws.
The firm renders extensive legal counseling to foreign companies investing in Turkey and to local companies investing in the domestic market or abroad. Among its clientele are world's major airlines, ground handling and catering companies, the media and entertainment giants, large hotel chains, tourism establishments and firms, IT and telecommunication companies, leading magazines, newspapers and domestic TV channels as well as the largest Turkish petroleum distribution company.
It has always been the firm's distinction to create precedents in the Supreme Court in many instances over the most disputed aspects of law. It is through the membership of the firm's senior partner, Barbaros Çaga, in TUSIAD that the firm has had the chance to lecture and advise the Supreme Court Judges as well as the Ministry of Labour and Social Security with regard to interpretation and application of the provisions of the new Turkish Labour Code. It is also through the same TUSIAD connection that the firm was engaged in a working group with the involvement of Supreme Court Judges as well as the representatives of Turkey's foremost institutions and firms in order to advise on the new Turkish Commercial Code prior to this enactment.
It was also with the efforts of Çaga & Çaga that a media giant holding company of Turkey became the first among all Turkish entities to apply the principles of corporate governance. It is also noteworthy to mention in this respect that Barbaros Çaga is a lecturer of corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, consumer protection law and joint-venture agreements classes at the Yeditepe University Law School of Istanbul.

AREAS OF PRACTICE

(in alphabetical order)

Aviation & Shipping and Transport: Being among the firm's major fields of practice, this area of law is a traditional engagement and the firm is proud to be one of the few law firms of Turkey that handle international and domestic air-transport disputes. Legal service and counseling is rendered in this field of law to world's major airlines, airline catering companies, worldwide marketing and ticket sale firms as well as reservation system firms in all regulatory issues, aircraft leasing and financing contracts, joint ventures; as well as resolution of disputes both with private parties and with regulatory authorities. Çaga & Çaga is famous in paving the way for the Supreme Court to important precedence creation regarding the aviation law.

Banking & Finance: Extensive legal advice is rendered to clients on option transactions, loan and pledge agreements, collateralization and securitization matters, asset-backed financing, hedging mechanisms, mortgage banking, issuing of bonds and debentures, as well as regulatory issues in their dealings with world's major banks and financial institutions.

Capital Markets: The firm advises its clients in all aspects of the Capital Markets Law, their initial and other public offerings, tender offers, compliance with the Capital Market Board Regulations, settlement of disputes relating thereto and obtaining of required permissions and approvals.

Competition Law: Çaga & Çaga renders full service to its clients in matters of Competition Law both in the sense of consultancy and applications as well as the resolution of disputes.

Construction and Real Estate: Major construction firms are represented in their landscaping, high-rise construction, gross-market investment, large-scale land development, housing and settlement as well as hotel, holiday village, golf & country club establishment projects. Consultancy service in relation with various construction financing models and a long term lease contract is also rendered to clients.

Corporate and Commercial: The firm's main field of practice since its establishment has been corporate consultancy and resolution of commercial law disputes. Çaga & Çaga focuses not only on giving mere legal advice, but seeks also to approach issues from a business standpoint and resolve matters by putting itself into the shoes of the 'businessmen'. The companies are assisted starting from their establishment stage, throughout their daily operations and in all of their special investment projects, joint-ventures, the Capital Market Board transactions, competition law issues, as well as in commercial, legal and tax disputes. The firm also undertakes the management of Turkish affiliates of foreign companies as their Trustees and guides them through the corporate governance maze.

Dispute Resolution (Litigation and Arbitration): This field of law is also one of the major practice areas of the firm and is exercised to a degree of paving the way for significant precedence creation at the Supreme Court level in the fields of corporate/commercial, tax and shipping and transport law. The firm currently deals with approximately 1.000 pending court cases, among which can be mentioned the shareholders' disputes in joint ventures and acquisitions, disputes relating to infringement of shareholders' rights, disputes based on the grounds of infringement of personal rights, lawsuits related to unfair competition, the tax disputes related to corporate tax, income tax, VAT and customs duties issues, cases related to fines imposed by the Advertisement Control Committee due to allegedly illegal advertisements, lawsuits initiated by the former employees of the clients before the Labour Courts, disputes arising out of the license contracts, or cases related to trademark, patent and copyright infringements. The firm is also active in the field of arbitration and the enforcement of arbitral awards. Çaga & Çaga has represented the clients in local and international arbitrations resolved as per the ICC and UNCITRAL rules. In that respect, the firm has represented its clients in the first arbitration ever initiated against the Turkish government in a foreign jurisdiction.

E-commerce & Consumer Protection: Internet shopping website operators are assisted with respect to regulatory issues, drafting of e-commerce contracts, seeking legal solutions to prevent credit card frauds through e-commerce, resolution of e-commerce disputes between the client, its customers and/or credit card institutions, training the client's personnel with regard to e-commerce provisions of the Consumer Protection Law, advertising law issues, as well as the consumers' rights matters.

Employment Law: As a “Business Law” law firm, Employment Law is another one of Çaga & Çaga's main areas of concentration. The firm represents clients in the industrial and tourism sector in their negotiations with Workers' Unions, in social security matters; individual labour disputes and renders legal services and consultancy related to all other employment law disputes and matters.

Foreign Direct Investments: The clients are guided their ways through the maze of complicated regulatory issues, preparation of joint-venture agreements and company articles in light of their needs, the registration procedures, tax issues and obtaining of incentive certificates.

Information Technology and Telecommunications: Çaga & Çaga has extended its services within the past several years also to include the IT and Telecommunications sector. The firm has advised its clients in the merger and acquisition of mobile phone operators, in their disputes with Turkish Telecom based on its unfair competition practices against ISPs, in regulatory matters, WAP applications, IT services and private long-distance telephony operations.

Intellectual Property: The firm's litigation practice with respect to IP issues is very far-reaching. Çaga & Çaga represents its clients in an abundant number of lawsuits currently being heard before the Court of Intellectual Property and gives an extended consultancy service regarding the license contracts. The firm specializes in licence and copyright contracts (film, music, books, TV programs, photography, trademarks), as well as the entire set of agreements required by the film and music production industry related to casting, scenario, direction, composer, marketing, promotion, merchandizing, co-production, etc. Another concentration field of the firm is the patent and trademark regulations, applications, disputes arising out of rejections and the protection thereof. In that respect, Çaga & Çaga deals intensely with the infringement cases before the Court of Intellectual Property and an average of 200 applications for trademark and patent registrations are filed each year through the firm before the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office.

Media and Entertainment: Another of the firm's major fields of practice, Çaga & Çaga renders extensive legal consultancy in media related investments, in special legal restrictions affecting the activities of media, in daily operations of media companies, as well as their management and re-organizations. In addition, legal disputes of all type concerning the media sector including infringement of personal rights, tax, labour as well as the legal actions in relation with commercial disputes and lawsuits initiated against the decisions of the Competition Board through means of media are dealt with by the firm. Çaga & Çaga is also specialized in the advertisement regulations in all troubled sectors, such as health, pharmaceuticals, education, cosmetics, tobacco, alcohol. As well as dealing with the lawsuits against fines imposed by the Advertisement Control Committee to the publishers, agencies and the producers due to allegedly illegal ads published in magazines and newspapers, or broadcasted in televisions or radios, the firm also gives preventive legal advice related to possible methods of avoiding such fines.

Mergers and Acquisitions: Çaga & Çaga, having realized the first merger ever in Turkey, has since then dealt with the largest volume M&A's realized within the country. The firm has represented worldwide known home appliances companies in their Turkish operations, mobile phone operators, television and radio companies, tourism establishments, industrial entrepreneurs, newspaper publishers, oil distribution companies, big hotel chains, firms active in the herbal teas and nutrition sector, as well as other industrialists in the structuring of their various mergers and acquisitions with a look also towards tax planning.

Privatization: The firm represents its clients in the major privatization projects of Turkey in the due-diligence stage, in their dealings with the State and in the contracts with their joint-venture partners.

Tax Law and Financial Planning: A most essential brick in the accomplishment of a full-range one-stop shopping that almost all corporate clients require, an extensive tax consultancy, tax and investment planning, obtaining of investment incentive certificates and various tax exemptions as well as tax mitigation and litigation service in all fields of the tax law including the customs law is rendered for the clients. The clients are successfully represented in their multi-million dollar tax disputes arising out of most complicated tax deals and financing structures.