On Sunday, 25 November 2018, at İstanbul University, a session on Venture Capital Law was moderated by Vircon Legal co-founder Erdem Mümtaz Hacıpaşaoğlu; speakers including attorney Görkem Gökçe shared insights and experience with lawyers considering a career in the field.
What a venture capital lawyer actually works on
Venture capital law is really two practices facing each other. On one side sits the fund itself — a GSYF established under Capital Markets Board rules, or an individual investor working within the BKY regime — whose documents govern how money is raised, called and returned. On the other sits the portfolio company, whose founders are negotiating the terms that will define their next several years.
The fund-side work is less visible and more structural: LP commitments that are promises rather than cash, capital calls that convert them, and the manager’s own GP commit that aligns everyone. A lawyer who understands both sides drafts differently, because the investor’s rights in one document are the company’s obligations in another. See Fund Formation, GP & LP Agreements and the investment terms glossary.
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