This Privacy Notice has been prepared by Taşkın & Şimşek Law Firm (“Taşkın & Şimşek”) to inform you regarding your personal data that may be processed by Taşkın & Şimşek and regarding the purposes of processing, methods and legal grounds for collection, categories of recipients to whom the personal data may be transferred, and your rights under the Law on the Protection of Personal Data numbered 6698 (“LPPD”). 

Your personal data may be collected through the information and documents that you have produced or shared with us prior to, during, or after receiving services from Taşkın & Şimşek or through other similar relations, transactions, stakeholders, publicly available resources and platforms (such as media records, the trade registry, and the chamber of commerce); communications, research, meetings, interviews, and correspondences that Taşkın & Şimşek has made with you and through other channels, including our website and social media, via oral, written, and electronic platforms, and are processed through automatic means for the purposes explained in this Privacy Notice.

Your personal data will be retained within Turkey for the legal retention periods, if any, and/or for the period necessary for the purposes of processing. Your personal data will be erased, destroyed, or anonymized at the end of the retention period necessary for the purposes of processing in accordance with the legislation and relevant policies and procedures of Taşkın & Şimşek.

Legal Grounds for Processing Personal Data

Your personal data may be processed within the scope of the legal advisory/advocacy services we provide to our clients, our business development and procurement processes, as well as the administration, management, and financial operations of Taşkın & Şimşek, for the purposes described below and to the extent necessary, on the legal grounds that processing personal data is necessary for the enactment or fulfilment of the contract, you have made the personal data available to the public, the data processing is mandatory for the establishment, exercise, or protection of any right or that processing personal data is mandatory for the legitimate interests of Taşkın & Şimşek or upon your consent where necessary.

Your personal data may be processed in the course of providing you updates on legislative amendments or legal developments as well as our newsletters, publications and events to the extent necessary with respect to the legal advisory/advocacy relationship and on the legal grounds that the processing of personal data is mandatory for the legitimate interests of Taşkın & Şimşek or upon the consent of the individuals who are interested in our services, publications and events.

1. Legal Advisory and Advocacy Services

As part of our legal advisory and advocacy services, we may process the personal data of clients, project stakeholders, suppliers that provide consultancy/support with respect to our main activities, experts who provide opinions, individuals that are the subject of or party to the relevant legal advisory or advocacy services or dispute, as well as their representatives and employees, and of third parties such as judges, public prosecutors, counter party attorneys, experts and notaries public.

1.1. Purposes of Processing

Your personal data is processed for the below purposes:

• Providing legal advisory and advocacy services to our clients, the performance of our other contractual obligations, and reporting;
• Communication with our clients, their stakeholders, and third party communication on behalf of our clients, within the context of the services provided to our clients;
• Informing clients of legislative and other developments;
• Obtaining expert and legal opinions by Taşkın & Şimşek, the procurement of third party goods/services with respect to the services provided to clients, and the management of such processes;
• Carrying out invoicing, payment, accounting, and settlement processes;
• Carrying out corporate communication processes and improving client relations and communication;
• Carrying out internal processes such as finance, IT, HR, office administration, secretariat, correspondences, archive, etc.;
• Providing information and documentation requested under the relevant legislation by judicial or administrative authorities, including execution offices, law enforcement officers;
• Performing Taşkın & Şimşek’s legal obligations under the legislation, especially under the Attorneyship Law.

1.2. Transfer of Personal Data

Your personal data may be shared with third parties for the abovementioned purposes, within the scope of the standard processes of Taşkın & Şimşek and in accordance with the legislation, to the extent necessary and relevant for the purposes in question. The principal circumstances where your personal data may be shared with third parties within the scope of Taşkın & Şimşek’s existing practices are as follows:

Your personal data may be shared with third parties such as clients, relevant project partners, experts and consultants that we have requested an opinion from, courts, notaries public, and relevant institutions and organizations in the course of our legal advisory and advocacy services; banks to execute payments; event organizers venues and similar parties with respect to event organizations; the suppliers and consultants we receive services from in fields such as IT, HR, finance, accounting, auditing, design, mailing, and bulk communications; and the competent authorities in accordance with our legal obligations or the requests made by authorities authorized to request your information as per the legislation or in case of a dispute.

2. Business Development and Newsletter Publications

Personal data may be processed regarding our clients that we provide legal advisory and advocacy services to, project partners, suppliers that we receive counselling/support from with respect to our main activities, experts that provide us opinions, together with their representatives and employees, as well as individuals that are interested in our services and publications.

2.1. Purposes of Processing

Your personal data is processed for the below purposes:

• Providing legal advisory and advocacy services to clients and fulfilling our contractual obligations and reporting;
• Carrying out business development activities and improving our services;
• Carrying out corporate communication processes and improving client relations and communication;
• Sharing our publications and works such as newsletters, client alerts, articles, legal developments etc. with existing and potential clients and other individuals that are interested in our publications and work through mail, e-mail or other communications means;
• Managing and administering our corporate structure, carrying out internal reporting, auditing, and business development processes, managing contracts, carrying out legal and accounting processes, and performing Taşkın & Şimşek’s internal rules and procedures;
• Providing information and documentation requested under the relevant legislation by judicial or administrative authorities, including execution offices or law enforcement officers;
• Performing Taşkın & Şimşek’s legal obligations under the legislation, especially under the Attorneyship Law numbered 1136.

2.2. Newsletter Subscriptions

If you have requested to be included in the delivery list for our Newsletters and Client Alerts, your personal data may be processed for the purposes of performing the relevant delivery. If you no longer wish to receive e-mails from Taşkın & Şimşek with respect to the deliveries in question, you may click on the link indicating “Please click if you do not want to receive information e-mail” included in the e-mail that has been sent to you. 

3. Using our Website

We use necessary cookies on our website at www.taskinsimsek.com, which are kept temporarily in order to enable the visitors to effectively use our website. The relevant cookies will be erased automatically upon the termination of the website session.

Your personal data may be shared with the suppliers that we receive services from and with the competent authorities within the scope of the requests received from the authorities that are entitled to request your information and in case of disputes.

The personal data that you have shared with us through contact forms on our website for your requests regarding our publications, such as registration for our Newsletter and Client Alert delivery lists, may be processed for the purposes explained under section 2 above “Business Development and Newsletter Publications” and shared with the groups of recipient indicated therein.

4. Your Rights and Contact

We would like to remind that you are granted the below rights under the LPPD:

a. The right to be informed whether their personal data has been processed or to request information about whether their personal data has been processed;
b. The right to be informed of the purposes of the data processing and whether their personal data has been used for the intended purposes;
c. The right to be informed of the third parties to whom their personal data has been transferred either domestically or abroad;
d. The right to request the rectification of incomplete or inaccurate data, if any; request the erasure or destruction of their personal data under the conditions laid down in the LPPD legislation; or request a notification from the third parties to whom their personal data has been transferred regarding the operations carried out with respect to their aforementioned request;
e. The right to object to the processing of their personal data collected exclusively by automatic means that has led to an unfavorable consequence for them;
f. The right to request compensation for any damages arising from the unlawful processing of their personal data.

For your queries or requests in relation to your personal data, you may submit your written request to our address at “Şehit Ahmet Sokak Mecidiyeköy İş Merkezi No:4 Kat:14, Şişli / İstanbul” through mail or by sending an e-mail to our e-mail address at info@taskinsimsek.com (from the e-mail address that you previously informed us of and that can be found under our records). We will be able to provide a more satisfactory response to your request if your request is precise, explicit, and clear. Please note that your request should concern your own data, or if you are acting on behalf of another person, you must provide us with a special power of attorney covering the request. As per the regulations, your request should include your name, surname, Turkish ID number (for foreigners, nationality information and passport number), proof of identity, and the contact information for where our response to your request should be sent.

Taşkın & Şimşek Law Firm