On April 26, 2020, our Managing Partner Erdem Mümtaz Hacıpaşaoğlu joined Av. Okan Şencan as a guest on the İkonion Akademi broadcast organized by the İkonion Hukuk ve Kariyer Derneği, in a session titled “Hukuka Farklı Bakış — Startup Hukuku”. The conversation was moderated by Girayhan Ocak, Ercan Şirinoğlu and Halil İbrahim Kaçar.
The central thesis of the session was clear: startup law is a hybrid practice that pulls together IP, corporate, employment, tax and data law — and the lawyer working in it cannot specialize in a single sub-field, because the founder’s daily problems do not respect those academic borders.
Topics covered
The broadcast walked through: what a startup and startup law actually are, how to protect an idea, whether current legal frameworks are sufficient, the lawyer’s role between founder and investor, incubators, bootstrapping mechanics, founder–angel negotiations, vesting and lock-up structures, exit dynamics, KVKK compliance for startups, and the impact of Covid-19 on early-stage investment flows.
The Forbes 30 Under 30 context
The İkonion team noted in the session that Mümtaz and Okan had recently been named to Forbes Türkiye’s “30 Under 30” list — a milestone the team treated as a marker of where Turkey’s startup law practice had reached as a young, recognized discipline.
Closing reflection
The session closed on a recurring theme: a single career may no longer be a linear single profession. The lawyer of the next decade, especially in the startup space, will move between corporate practice, product thinking, investor-side work, and operator roles — and Turkish law schools will need to engage with that reality.
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