Biography: Competition

Mr Gürkaynak graduated from Ankara University, Faculty of Law in 1997, and was called to the Istanbul Bar in 1998. Thereafter, he worked on Turkish competition law issues for the first three years of antitrust enforcement in Turkey and obtained his LLM degree from Harvard Law School, also studying as a research assistant in antitrust law between 2000-2001. After sitting for the bar exam and qualifying in New York, he practised at an international law firm in New York until the end of 2002. He then transferred to Brussels to work on EC competition law matters, and also became a solicitor of the Law Society of England and Wales (currently non-practising) after passing the QLTT. Mr Gürkaynak worked on all aspects of European competition and merger control with an international law firm in Brussels.

Every year Mr Gürkaynak and his team of 11 specialists in ELIG represent multinational companies and large domestic clients in more than 10 written and oral defences in investigations of the Turkish Competition Authority, about a dozen antitrust appeal cases in the high administrative court, and over 30 merger clearances of the Turkish Competition Authority.

He is the author of a book published by the Turkish Competition Authority, and numerous articles in English and in Turkish on matters of EC competition law and Turkish competition law. Mr Gürkaynak frequently speaks at conferences and symposia on competition law matters. He teaches undergraduate and graduate level courses at three universities, and gives lectures in other universities in Turkey.