Gürkan Erdebil

LL.M.
Attorney at Law
Partner

Background

Gürkan Erdebil is a co-founder of GEMS Schindhelm, established in 2018 and today the Turkish member of the Schindhelm Alliance. Since 2020 he has also been the legal counsel of trust of the Austrian Embassy in Ankara.

After his admission to the bar, he practised as an attorney at Türkoğlu & Partner until 2012 and was subsequently a partner at Kunt & Partner until 2018.

Gürkan Erdebil graduated from the Austrian St. George's College in Istanbul in 1999 and completed his law degree at Istanbul University with honours in 2003. In 2005 he obtained his LL.M. in Business Law from Galatasaray University with a thesis on “corporate restructuring under German law”. As a DAAD scholar, he attended the German business law programme at the University of Tübingen in 2006 and, as part of that programme, worked at the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf and in the Düsseldorf office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

Gürkan Erdebil has been a member of the Istanbul Bar Association since 2004.

He served on the board of the Sankt Georg alumni association from 2020 to 2026 and has been a member of its supervisory board since 2026. Since 2026 he has also been a member of the DACH European Lawyers' Association.

He works in Turkish, German and English.

Expertise

Gürkan Erdebil has advised companies from Germany, Austria and Switzerland on their activities in Turkey for more than twenty years. The focus of his practice is corporate law; the formation of foreign-owned companies in Turkey, market entry, intra-group restructuring, the design of corporate governance structures and the preparation and conduct of board and general assembly meetings including the adoption of resolutions are the core topics in this field. In the same field he advises on shareholder disputes, the exit of shareholders and the liquidation of companies, and accompanies foreign groups in winding up their activities in Turkey, from the legal and operational planning of the market exit to the closure of the subsidiary.

In contract law he supports companies in drafting and negotiating commercial, distribution, agency and cooperation agreements governed by Turkish law, and in employment law from contract drafting through to the termination of employment relationships. In real estate law he advises on the acquisition and leasing of commercial and residential property.

He represents foreign creditors in enforcing claims against Turkish debtors and conducts litigation before the Turkish courts, particularly in commercial and corporate disputes. Experience shows that a significant share of these matters is intertwined with the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards in Turkey.

A separate area of his practice is advising private individuals from German-speaking countries with ties to Turkey. This covers relocation to Turkey and its tax structuring, the acquisition and management of real estate, inheritance matters relating to assets in Turkey, and family law matters of a cross-border nature. The tax dimension is handled in coordination with GEMS Serbest Muhasebeci Mali Müşavirlik A.Ş.

Further areas of practice include insolvency and restructuring law, in particular cross-border insolvency proceedings involving Turkish subsidiaries and Turkish composition (concordat) proceedings, customs and foreign trade law, consumer and e-commerce law, and the pursuit of insurance claims. In criminal law he represents companies and executives in investigations and criminal proceedings together with a cooperating lawyer specialised in criminal law.

Gürkan Erdebil has been the legal counsel of trust of the Austrian Embassy in Ankara since 2020 and has previously represented foreign diplomatic missions on matters of Turkish law. He regularly contributes the Turkey sections to the international newsletters of the Schindhelm Alliance.