School / Department: King’s College London – International Financial Law LLM

Institution and Position: Tallinn University of Technology – Early Stage Researcher / Legal Design Turkey – Founder

Could you tell us a little about yourself? How has your career been shaped so far?

I graduated from TED Ankara College Foundation Private High School in 2003. I completed my law degree at İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University in 2009 and registered as a lawyer of the Istanbul Bar Association in 2011. I worked as a consultant lawyer at General Directorate of Yapı ve Kredi Bankası A.Ş. between 2011-2013. In 2013-2014 academic term, I completed my master’s degree at King’s College London as a Jean Monnet Scholar. In the same period, I also did an internship at Nestor Advisors, a London-based corporate governance company. I worked as a lawyer in the General Directorate at Türkiye Şişe ve Cam Fabrikaları A.Ş. (Şişecam) between 2015-2017. During 2017-2018, I did an internship for 1 year in the Corporate Governance unit of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) within the scope of the Pan European Seal Traineeship Programme. After that, I worked as a Contract Management Specialist at Sabancı University Research Development and Technology Transfer Office between 2018-2020. I started to work in the field of design in law in 2020, and I founded a social enterprise called “Legal Design Turkey” in 2021. Also in 2021, I started to work as the director of the “Bilgi Legal Design Lab” under Bilgi University. In August 2022, I started working as an early-stage researcher at Tallinn University of Technology to pursue my doctoral studies. I am currently located in Tallinn for my doctoral studies.

In 2021, I received an award and project support from the UNDP Social Innovation Support Programme for Legal Design Turkey. In 2022, I was named one of the most influential leader women in the field of legal technology by the International Legal Technology Association. I was also included in the “Top 100 Women in Social Enterprise” list of Euclid Network. Again in 2022, I received the Business and Innovation award within the scope of the “Study UK Alumni Awards” programme organised by the British Council and completed the Executive Leadership programme at Oxford University within the scope of this award. In 2022, I was selected for the Global Women’s Mentorship Programme, sponsored by U.S. Department State and Fortune companies and organised by Vital Voices and I completed this mentorship programme at AIG’s New York office. Lastly, I completed the “SheEntrepreneurs Programme” organised by The Swedish Institute in 2022.

Apart from these, I have been serving as the Türkiye representative of the European Legal Technology Association, the leader of the Turkish Women International Network Legal Circle and the Türkiye Representative of the World Commerce and Contracting World Council.

Could you give some information about the university where you studied with the Jean Monnet Scholarship and the subject you worked on?

I completed the International Financial Law programme at King’s College London in the United Kingdom. Within this programme, which I was very pleased with, the international financial law courses I took especially from a practical point of view were extremely effective in improving my analytical perspective. Apart from that, corporate finance and corporate administration courses enabled me to determine my thesis subject. I wrote my thesis on the role of independent board members and the concept of independence. During the programme, I also served as the student representative of the International Finance Law module.

Due to my special interest in the field of corporate administration, I did a short-term internship at Nestor Advisors, a London-based corporate administration consultancy company. During this internship, I had the chance to apply the knowledge I gained in the master’s programme to practice.

What are the effects of the education you completed through the Jean Monnet Scholarship Programme on your view of the European Union?

I believe that the Jean Monnet Scholarship Programme has provided great amount of added value for me and my career and has been beneficial in obtaining timely and detailed information about the European Union (EU) accession process and the EU acquis as well as in improving dialogue with international civil society organisations. There is a deep-rooted relationship between Türkiye and the EU. I am of the opinion that such programmes contribute to Türkiye’s EU accession process as a candidate country. I support EU membership so that our country can achieve its development goals. The content of the programme and the colleagues I met also strengthened my opinion.

What would you like to recommend to Jean Monnet scholarship candidates?

I recommend that they do good planning before applying to the programme. A planning to include questions such as in which field they want to work, what they want to achieve during their education, what they want to do after the education which will enable them to obtain full efficiency from the programme.

I recommend being open to innovations, not being afraid to make mistakes and adopting a positive approach as much as possible. For my part, I’ve made friends from many different countries since I did my master’s degree in London. One of the biggest factors in this was that I was open to innovations and getting to know different cultures.

Lastly, I recommend that they contribute to both themselves and their local communities by participating in cultural and voluntary activities in their host country without disrupting their academic studies.