WLG | impact '24: Hergüner Partners With Their Local Community

We actively engage with our local communities through pro bono legal services, volunteer initiatives, and partnerships with non-profit organizations that promote access to justice, education, and social welfare. We provided pro bono legal advice to SDG Outcomes Fund, a specialist impact investment fund, on a government-funded results-based finance program designed to reduce youth unemployment in Türkiye. As part of the program, the Istanbul Development Agency entered into a contract with an SPV that is wholly owned by the client, for the SPV to establish a program to reduce youth unemployment in Istanbul. We assisted the client by reviewing and negotiating the terms of the project contracts from a Turkish law perspective and navigated the client throughout the project. In response to the devastating earthquake in Hatay in February 2023 Hergüner provided financial aid to the victims through a fund set up by the Bar Association and lawyers from the firm participated in different civil initiatives or teamed up with lawyers from other law firms to assist lawyers living in the affected region. The primary focus of our work was helping law students and young lawyers and bar associations to gather evidence in the region for future litigation to protect the rights of people who lost their houses.

Hergüner’s partners and associates contribute to Turkey’s social and economic development through financial support of, and active participation in, organizations dedicated to improving business practices, education, the arts, the environment, and good governance. Our most notable sponsorships include the Association for Supporting Contemporary Life, which promotes development in the fields of education, human rights, and rule of law. Furthermore, we provide pro-bono legal services to various charitable organizations including the Six Dots Foundation for the Blind (Altı Nokta Körler Vakfı) and YUVA Derneği, a holistic center for learning and advocacy, addressing environmental, human rights and poverty elimination issues. Our partners and associates assisted in incorporating and serving on the Board of Directors for the Güneşane Vakfı, an organization that provides training in agricultural skills to underprivileged children in the town of Assos over the summer months. This organization combines our commitment to the preservation and development of our natural treasures as well as our desire to invest in future generations. We have also donated to the NGO 5 Skoler, which builds schools for Syrian children living in refugee camps on the Turkish border and funds teachers, school supplies and food and clothing for the children, so that they have a chance at an education and a brighter future.