Why Choose Serka Law Firm
Serka Law Firm is an international law firm that represents foreign individuals, expatriates, investors, and companies in cross-border legal matters governed by Turkish law, working directly with the partner who handles the file and across the languages its clients actually speak.
This page explains who the firm helps, what it does, and how it works, so you can judge whether it fits your matter before you make contact. The case for engaging the firm is built on verifiable capability, founded in 2015, a multilingual practice operating across 15 languages, direct partner-level communication, and named cross-border practice areas run under specific Turkish statutes and international conventions, rather than on slogans or marketing numbers.
Who does Serka Law Firm help?
Serka Law Firm helps international clients whose legal matter touches Turkey, including foreign nationals applying for residence or citizenship, investors buying property or structuring company formation, expatriates managing family or employment issues, and businesses pursuing or defending cross-border disputes. The common factor is a need for Turkish-law work to be handled in a language the client understands and coordinated with their position in another jurisdiction. If your matter is purely domestic and involves no international element, a local generalist may serve you just as well.
The firm is built for situations where documents are issued in one country, assets or counterparties sit in another, and the same factual record has to stand up before a Turkish court, registry, bank, or authority. That is where multilingual handling and cross-border coordination stop being a convenience and become part of the legal work itself.
What does the firm do?
Serka Law Firm provides advisory and dispute work across a defined set of practice areas under Turkish law, each tied to its governing framework rather than offered as a generic service list. The areas below reflect the firm’s actual capability, and most cross-border files draw on more than one of them at once.
- Immigration and residence permits, handled under Law No. 6458 on Foreigners and International Protection.
- Citizenship by investment, structured under the Turkish Citizenship Law No. 5901 and its implementing Regulation.
- Corporate and commercial law, including company formation, contracts, and ongoing counsel.
- Real estate transactions, including acquisition, due diligence, and title work.
- Criminal defense for foreign nationals and cross-border matters.
- Family law, including marriage, divorce, custody, and the cross-border recognition of foreign orders.
- Debt recovery and enforcement proceedings.
- Employment law for employers and employees.
- Maritime law.
- Technology and data privacy.
- Dispute resolution and international arbitration, including enforcement of arbitral awards under the New York Convention.
- Recognition and enforcement of foreign court judgments and arbitral awards.
For the matters clients raise most often, the dedicated service pages set out the detail, including corporate and commercial law, immigration and residence permits, and international arbitration.
How does the firm work?
The firm works by turning an inquiry into a structured file before recommending action, separating the client’s objective, deadline, jurisdiction, documents, counterparties, and practical constraints so that advice is concrete rather than abstract. The first review identifies what is already usable, what needs translation or certification, and which facts must be proved before a court, registry, bank, authority, or opposing party. The output is a workable plan, the required documents, the immediate risks, the likely sequence, and the next step, not a generic answer.
Communication is partner-level and direct. You deal with the lawyer responsible for your matter, in a language you are comfortable in, and the process is kept transparent so you can see what has been done and what comes next. For cross-border files, the same discipline extends to language consistency across documents, enforceability in more than one legal system, and keeping a single clean factual record that holds wherever it is tested.
What does cross-border capability actually mean here?
Cross-border capability means the firm is set up to make foreign elements verifiable inside a Turkish file and to make Turkish outcomes usable abroad. In practice that involves reconciling transliterated names across jurisdictions, documenting the lawful source and path of funds from origin to a Turkish transaction, aligning civil-status records issued under foreign law with what Turkish institutions expect, and structuring a matter so a judgment or award obtained in one forum can be recognized and enforced in another. Enforcement of foreign arbitral awards, for example, runs through the New York Convention, to which Turkey is a party.
Because most international matters involve obligations in more than one country, the firm coordinates the Turkish-law work with the client’s wider position rather than treating it in isolation. A residence or citizenship file may need to serve later company formation or mobility planning, and a dispute may need to be framed from the start for enforcement across borders.
Why engage Serka Law Firm?
The reason to engage Serka Law Firm is specific capability, not a claim of being larger or more prestigious than anyone else. The firm has operated since 2015 under Av. Serkan Kara, registered with the Istanbul Bar (No. 53770), it works across 15 languages, it gives clients direct access to the partner handling the matter, and it runs a defined set of cross-border practice areas under named statutes and conventions including Law No. 6458, the Turkish Citizenship Law No. 5901, and the New York Convention. The value is a matter handled by someone accountable for it, in your language, with the cross-border angle built in from the first document.
To see how this approach plays out in practice, review the firm’s representative matters and about the firm, or read more on the Serka entity.
Frequently asked questions
When was Serka Law Firm founded, and who runs it?
Serka Law Firm was founded in 2015 by Av. Serkan Kara, who is registered with the Istanbul Bar under No. 53770. Since then the firm has represented international and Turkish clients across cross-border matters, with direct partner-level handling of files. The firm’s approach has stayed consistent: clear analysis, realistic options, and disciplined execution on each matter it takes on.
What languages can I work in with the firm?
The firm operates as a multilingual practice across 15 languages, which is why international clients can present documents and discuss their matter without translating their position twice. For cross-border files this is part of the legal work, not a courtesy, because language consistency across documents affects how a record is read by a Turkish court, registry, bank, or authority. Confirm the specific language coverage for your matter when you make contact.
Does the firm only handle Turkish matters?
The firm practices Turkish law, but its work is built around cross-border situations where Turkey is one of several connected jurisdictions. That includes reconciling foreign documents inside a Turkish file, aligning civil-status and corporate records issued abroad, and structuring matters so a Turkish judgment or arbitral award can be recognized and enforced elsewhere, or a foreign award enforced in Turkey under the New York Convention. The Turkish-law work is coordinated with the client’s wider international position.
How do I start, and will I deal with the lawyer directly?
You start by sharing the basic facts of your matter so the firm can identify the objective, the deadline, and the documents in play, and return a workable plan rather than a generic answer. Communication is partner-level and direct, so you deal with the lawyer responsible for the file. A first review will usually tell you what is already usable, what needs translation or certification, and what the next step is.
To discuss your matter and request a confidential consultation: contact Serka Law Firm.
General information, not legal advice. Turkish law; verify your specific situation with qualified counsel.