Foreign Law Firms in Türkiye: Documents

A foreign law firm can operate in Türkiye only within narrow limits. Under the Turkish Attorneyship Law, foreign law partnerships that want to work in Türkiye under the foreign investment framework may give advice only on foreign law and international law, and must be set up in line with the law and the rules on law partnerships.

Registration with the bar

Foreign law partnerships apply to the bar of the place where they will work. A law partnership acquires legal personality when the bar's board of directors enters it in the bar's register of law partnerships; without that entry, the partnership name cannot be used and no activity can be carried out in its name. The articles of association must follow the model articles for foreign law partnerships issued by the Union of Turkish Bar Associations and be signed by all partners, with every page signed by each partner. The application is not processed unless the petition and all documents are handed in complete. The Ministry of Justice can send back decisions it does not approve to the Union for reconsideration, with its reasons.

Documents from abroad

The application includes certified copies of the foreign partners' passports. For each foreign partner, the licence to practise or certificate of authority from the foreign bar where they are registered, and a document showing that nothing prevents them from continuing to practise, must be translated and approved by a notary. A certificate of membership of a Turkish bar is not required for a foreign law partnership, subject to reciprocity.

Reciprocity is a precondition: for each foreign partner, a document from the competent authorities must show that Turkish lawyers and law partnerships can work on equal terms in that partner's country.

We translate bar licences and certificates into Turkish in Ankara through translators sworn before a Turkish notary, with notarial approval. The bar decides on registration.