What I do
I run Vircon Legal. Most of our work lives in five areas: blockchain and crypto-assets, data protection, fintech and payments, AI policy, and venture-backed startup deals. The clients are usually founders, investors, and product leaders who need someone equally comfortable with a term sheet and an architecture diagram, and who won’t slow them down translating between the two.
What makes it different
A lot of lawyers can read a contract. Fewer have actually signed one as a founder, watched a clause they negotiated come back at exit, and then sat across the table from the next round’s investors. I have. I co-founded Clemta, scaled it internationally, and completed a partial exit while keeping a meaningful equity stake. Alongside that, I’m on the cap tables of multiple early-stage startups as an active angel.
That changes how I read a clause. I’m reading it three ways at once: what it does legally, what it costs operationally, and how it’s going to look the next time you raise or exit. Founders get advice from someone who has been on their side of a SHA. Investors get a counterparty who doesn’t need a primer on how a round actually works. Both sides save time, and the document gets better.
Where the work usually lands
- Blockchain & crypto-assets. Token issuance, exchange regulation, custody, regulatory licensing. Plus the ongoing AML work that sits underneath all of it.
- Data protection. Building KVKK and GDPR programs that hold up; privacy-by-design reviews of product architectures rather than tick-the-box checklists; cross-border transfer frameworks that survive a regulator’s reading.
- Fintech. Licensing, payment services, electronic money institutions, and the regulatory plumbing the bank-side won’t help you with.
- AI policy. Helping teams deploy responsibly inside whatever the current regulatory regime looks like, and adjust as it shifts.
- Startup transactions. Financings, founder agreements, M&A — written so they don’t bite you in the next round.
Recognition & credentials
- Legal 500 — Recommended Lawyer, two consecutive years
- CIPM — Certified Information Privacy Manager (IAPP)
- ISO 27001/IEC Lead Auditor
- OneTrust Privacy Fellow
- Certified Blockchain Expert
- LinkedIn Top Voice — Blockchain, Venture Capital, Consulting, Entrepreneurship
- Forbes 30 Under 30 Türkiye
- G20 — Türkiye representative, Startup20
- European Legal Technology Association — Türkiye Ambassador
- Former co-director, LEGratory — Bilgi University’s Legaltech Laboratory (2021–2023)
Writing & teaching
I write a Substack called Understanding Web3 Legal Implications — recurring deep-dives on the regulatory edges of blockchain, digital assets, and AML. It’s where I work out what I think before it becomes client advice.
I also teach. Startup Hukuku 101 on Udemy is the structured introduction I wish I’d had as a young lawyer working on first-time founders’ deals. And I co-authored two books with the same goal of making the boring-but-important parts of company-building legible to the people actually doing it: Startup Hukuku — Avukatınızdan, Yatırımcınızdan, Rakiplerinizden Daha Çok Bilmeniz Gerekenler (the founder-side playbook for tech startups) and Adım Adım Biyogirişimcilik (Step-by-Step Bio-entrepreneurship — the same playbook for biotech founders).
Longer essays live on Medium and the Vircon Legal author page.