The discipline of defence and internal investigation in white-collar risks.
From internal suspicion to prosecutorial investigation: internal investigation, executive liability, and corporate defence in a single team — criminal, employment, and compliance law managed together.
An integrated legal framework for White-Collar Crimes
White-collar matters advance at the intersection of criminal law, corporate law, employment law, data protection, and reputation management. A wrong first step can permanently weaken the security of evidence and the defence strategy.
We address internal investigations, employee interviews, director liability, criminal complaints, defence, and settlement prospects together with the company's commercial and managerial reality.
Services We Offer in This Focus Area
In the White-Collar Crimes focus area, we combine the relevant legal disciplines into a single work plan.
Conducting Internal Investigations
We investigate allegations of misconduct and whistleblower reports confidentially, observing the limits of employment law and KVKK, and report the findings with evidentiary value.
Explore →Testimony & Defence Preparation
Preparing directors and employees for the testimony process; strategic defence in investigation and prosecution.
Explore →Criminal Complaint & Intervention
Criminal complaints, intervention in the proceedings, and compensation coordination in incidents where the company is the victim.
Explore →Director Liability Analysis
Mapping and mitigating personal risks according to the division of duties and the signature and decision chain.
Explore →Search & Seizure Response
Protecting rights and maintaining record-keeping discipline during searches, seizures, and on-site inspections at the company.
Explore →Settlement & Outcome Management
Evaluating conciliation, effective remorse, and alternative resolution options together with the commercial outcome.
Explore →A team that reads the criminal file through the company's reality
White-collar matters are hidden in balance sheets, contracts, and money flows. With our accumulated expertise in commercial and company law, we decode the economic substance of the allegations; we build the defence or the pursuit of the case on this foundation.
- Economic crime analysis with an eye attuned to commercial operations
- Proper conversion of internal investigation findings into evidence
- Conflict-of-interest management between company and director interests
- Bilingual defence support for foreign executives
- Simultaneous coordination of the reputation and media dimension
Related Practice Areas
The legal disciplines this focus area draws on.
Related Services
Our services most often engaged in this focus area — together with their scope.
Compliance
Compliance advisory: we build programmes that bring your company into line with KVKK/GDPR, anti-corruption rules, and sectoral regulations. Through internal audit, policy, and training, we turn compliance into a lasting corporate culture.
Explore →Risk & Preventive Advisory
Risk and preventive advisory: we identify, analyse, and manage legal risks with preventive strategies before they turn into disputes. We map out your contract risk profile and clear problems before they even arise.
Explore →Litigation
In commercial and civil litigation, we provide holistic defence — from case strategy to pleadings, from evidence management to hearing representation, all the way through the appeal and cassation stages. We are also at your side in the recognition and enforcement of cross-border judgments.
Explore →Data & Document Management
Data and document management brings secure storage, KVKK/GDPR compliance, and the access and authorisation framework together under one roof. We manage your information without losing any of it, while protecting confidentiality and keeping it audit-ready.
Explore →Ongoing Legal Counsel
Ongoing legal counsel provides retainer-based legal support for your company's day-to-day operations — readily accessible and with predictable costs. As your external legal counsel, we stand by you at every stage of your decisions.
Explore →Related Sectors
The sectors this focus area touches often.
Banking & Finance
Advisory services in banking, fintech, payments, lending, collateral, investment, regulation and financial dispute processes.
Explore →Technology
Legal advisory on licensing, SaaS, data, intellectual property, investment, scaling, compliance, and product law for technology companies.
Explore →Media & Press
Content, freedom of expression, reputation, advertising, copyright, data and dispute advisory for media, publishing and press organisations.
Explore →Insurance
Advisory on policy, claims, subrogation, distribution channels, regulation, and disputes in insurance and reinsurance processes.
Explore →Related Regional Desks
Our cross-border and specialist desks that run this focus area.
Track Record: Selected Matters
Anonymised examples of our work in this focus area, including the approach, process and outcome.
Managing an internal suspicion through investigation and defence
In a suspected corruption matter, a procedurally sound internal investigation, disciplinary process, and coordination of the corporate defence at the prosecution stage.
Review the matter →Emergency response on the day of the search and subsequent defence
Response within hours to the search and seizure at the company headquarters; record-keeping, privileged-document objections and ongoing defence.
Review the matter →Closing a whistleblowing report through investigation and compliance
Investigating a report received through the reporting channel while preserving confidentiality and the prohibition on retaliation; linking the root cause to the compliance programme.
Review the matter →Team in This Focus Area
White-Collar Crimes and meet our experienced multilingual team.
Related Publications
White-Collar Crimes — latest insights and guides.
The examination depends on the conditions of a previously notified policy, proportionality, and purpose limitation. The practice of the Court of Cassation and the KVKK may deem an unannounced and unlimited examination unlawful. We prepare the examination protocol in a way that preserves its evidential value.
Yes, but data transfer, attorney–client privilege, and the limits of employment law must be observed. We strike the balance between intra-group reporting lines and the mandatory rules of Turkish law, and conduct a process that is defensible under both legal systems.
The first step is an assessment of the seriousness and scope of the report; an investigation plan is then established with rules on confidentiality, segregation of duties, and evidence security. Whistleblower protection and KVKK limits must be designed from the outset — we build this framework from day one.
Obtain legal support before giving any statement or signing any document; the first statement determines the fate of the file. We map your personal risk through your job description, signing authorities, and decision records, and build the defence accordingly.
Not always. The interests of the company and the executive may diverge; in that case separate representation is essential, and it must be identified early. We assess the conflict of interest from the outset and, where necessary, put a separate defence arrangement in place.
As a rule, no; in most cases filing a criminal complaint is at the company's discretion and is weighed together with its commercial, reputational, and recovery dimensions. We separately check for exceptional reporting obligations and reach the decision in light of the strength of the findings.
Defence strategy and communication strategy cannot be separated; a wrong statement becomes adverse evidence in the file. As the legal team, we build a measured communication framework that preserves the presumption of innocence; where necessary, we pursue access-blocking and right-of-reply remedies.
Let's build a legal strategy in the White-Collar Crimes focus area.
Let's evaluate your need together with the relevant practice areas, sectors, and regional desks.