Moroğlu Arseven associate Pelin Oğuzer spent three weeks this summer at Friedrich Graf von Westphalen & Partner in their Freiburg office between June 16 and July 4.
In that time she had a chance to get to know her German colleagues, observe their way of handling similar types of legal work that she handles in Turkey and work with the firm on a number of matters.
Some of those matters included:
- Revision, comment and negotiation of a share purchase agreement on the side of the buyers
- Revision of general terms and conditions of purchase and drafting of an amendment protocol
- Discussions on nullity of general terms and conditions in German and Turkish laws from a comparative point of view
- Revision of a sales agreement of chemical products and discussions on the distinction of direct and indirect damages in Turkish and German laws
- Preparation of corporate documents with respect to the merger of two GmbH’s
- Responding to a pharmaceutical client’s questions with respect to a consultancy agreement.
Oğuzer said the experience helped her to understand how foreign lawyers approach similar processes such as drafting and negotiating commercial contracts. She said it was also interesting to see their work routine and observe their process of planning a project and the way they delegate the duties within a team, which was slightly different than what she was used to.
“At the end of my secondment, I gave a presentation to about 15 lawyers from FGvW on Turkish sales law,” she said. “We also had a 20-30 minute Q&A session on sales law, compensation of damages and other remedies, choice of law issues in contracts and general questions on Turkish law of contracts as well as settlement of disputes in Turkey.”
Moroğlu Arseven has had a close relationship with Friedrich Graf von Westphalen & Partner since 2011. The relationship allows the firm to stay at the forefront of legal developments in Germany and the EU, while ensuring that clients receive high-quality representation in Germany.
Friedrich Graf von Westphalen & Partner is a leading German firm with offices in Cologne and Freiburg im Breisgau, as well as a strong relationship with international firms located in China, Brazil, France, Switzerland, and other locations.
After her secondment ended Oğuzer stayed another four weeks in Germany to do research on her masters’ thesis on product liability and visited the law library of the University of Freiburg.