Ece Dayioglu

Dayioglu Law Firm® - Arbitration Lawyer of the Year

Profile

Ece Dayioglu is a partner at Dayioglu Law Firm®, a full service law firm established more than a century ago with co-partner law firms in more than 50 countries across Europe, Asia, America and Africa. Dayioglu Law Firm® is at the disposal of its clients to find expeditious and effective solutions in cross-border litigation while rendering haute couture turnkey services.

Dayioglu Law Firm® is comprised of three partners: Cemal Sedat Dayioglu (Managing Partner), Oya Dayioglu (Senior Partner) and Ece Dayioglu (Partner). Together with their experienced and qualified team members, the firm provides legal services as party counsels, arbitrators, mediators, corporate counsels and lawyers.

As a prominent international law firm with more than 100 years of experience, Dayioglu Law Firm® has a command over numerous fields of law including but not limited to arbitration, mediation, aviation, construction, natural resources, energy and environment, banking and finance, commercial, corporate, competition, tourism, criminal, family, inheritance, intellectual property, real estate and tax law. Apart from its corporate and individual litigation and legal counselling services, Dayioglu Law Firm® has been involved in project-based cases, international operations, transactions and contracts.

Dayioglu Law Firm® abides by the rules of attorney-client confidentiality, legal practice, legal ethics and conflicts of interest while offering efficient and custom-tailored legal solutions to its clients and to those benefiting from its services. The firm provides its clients with direct contact with its team and prompt responses in relation with their legal problems in the course of its practice. The firm’s commitment to its clients finds expression in principled practice in compliance with its values, as well as in the legal solutions most appropriate to the situation at hand.

Interview

Can you share a little about your journey into law?

I was born into a family full of lawyers. Speaking literally, I am the seventh generation lawyer of my family. The family history goes back to the times of Ottoman Empire when my great-grandfather was a qadi under sharia. Following the proclamation of the Republic of Türkiye in 1923, the next generations became
lawyers under civil law.

I followed the footsteps of my ancestors, and now I am partnered with my father Cemal Sedat Dayioglu and my mother Oya Dayioglu at Dayioglu Law Firm®, for which we continue the tradition of attorneyship of our families. Since my childhood, being the only child of two eminent lawyers, I took an interest in the conversations between them, which were mainly on legal issues. Day by day it became more unbearable not to be part of this fascinating knowledge and experience. I therefore decided to become a lawyer myself, and I have never regretted my decision. From the beginning I felt lucky to take on the family heritage, to represent my family and to honour my family legacy in the best way I can.

However, I always felt as if I was responsible for the ‘now’ and
he ‘future’ of my family legacy. Everything was settled by my father: the experience, the knowledge, the team, the reputation, the office and the clients… in the end I understood that this left me even more room for broadening the horizon of Dayioglu Law Firm®, a role I have gladly taken on. I am the first in my family to be admitted to a foreign bar and to liaise our law firm with so many co-partner law firms across the world.

Can you tell us about the highlights or standout achievements of your career to date?

My greatest achievement is that I made my father – my mentor, my doyen – cry when I was admitted to the Paris Bar. But let me start from the beginning.

I graduated from Galatasaray University Faculty of Law. It is top-tier law faculty in Türkiye which accepts students from among the 200 who were most successful during the National Exam for Admission to University. I did my master’s degree in Arbitration and International Commercial Law (Arbitrage et Droit du Commerce International) at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. I have another master’s degree (with merit) in International Dispute Resolution and Economic Law from Queen Mary University of London. I graduated with a thesis on ‘The Enforceability of Arbitral Awards in International Arbitration Involving States and State-Owned Entities: How to Be Ensured by the Arbitral Tribunal and to Be Resisted by the Sovereigns?’

Following this, I graduated from Istanbul Bilgi University with a master’s degree in Economics Law with the project ‘Anti-Dilution Protection Arising as a Result of a Malicious Increase of Capital in Joint-Stock Companies’. I also submitted my application for a scholarship for academic success, which did not exist between Türkiye and France. However, through the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the French Minsitry of Foreign Affairs created
a scholarship (without reimbursement) which did not exist
only for me.

I was selected to intern at the International Court of Arbitration Secretariat of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). I also worked as an intern in the Middle East and North Africa-MENA Case Management Team and Special Counsel in the Secretariat of the ICC International Court of Arbitration. This was a position granted to only four interns per year selected among over 8.000 applicants.

I am a lawyer admitted to both the Istanbul (Türkiye) and the Paris (France) Bars. When I was first admitted to the Paris Bar in 2017, I checked myself on the Paris Bar directory and found that I was one of only three lawyers who were simultaneously qualified at the Istanbul and the Paris Bars and also practised in Türkiye. And I realised the other two were educated in France. So I was one of a kind!

I am also an internationally listed arbitrator and mediator. One of them is at the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators (SIArb). I successfully passed the Fellowship Assessment. However, due to the age criteria, my upgrade from Member to Fellow could not be done until SIArb annulled this condition, enabling me to upgrade my rank. In addition, I started a new position as Vice Secretary General at the Energy Disputes Arbitration Center (EDAC), the first and foremost sector-based arbitral institution focusing on energy disputes with its own rules. I was on the team that organised Istanbul Arbitration Week (ISTAW) 2022. It was the second edition of the first arbitration week (TAW 2021) in Türkiye.

Now at the age of 33, what I see in a nutshell is this: I hold three LLM degrees, I am a dual-qualified international lawyer in Türkiye and in France. I work on an international basis and as a partner at Dayioglu Law Firm®, operating in more than fifty countries through its co-partner law firms across the world. I am a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) in the UK, a Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators (SIArb) in Singapore, a listed arbitrator in the Shanghai Arbitration Commission (SHAC) in China, the Russian Arbitration Centre (RAC) in Russia, the Istanbul Arbitration Association (ISTA) in Türkiye and the Bali International Arbitration and Mediation Center (BIAMC) in Indonesia. I am a listed mediator at the International Mediation Institute in (IMI) the Netherlands, the Singapore International Mediation Institute (SIMI) in Singapore and the Bali International Arbitration and Mediation Center (BIAMC) in Indonesia. I am a former intern of the ICC and current Vice Secretary General of EDAC. And I have just begun.

What was it that drew you to work in arbitration and dispute resolution?

What excited me the most in arbitration is that parties to a dispute can choose its judge (arbitrator), its rules (substantive law), its court (seat of arbitration) and its procedure (procedural law). It is a fully customised way of resolving disputes where the procedural control is mainly on the parties. It is destined to be expeditious and cost-effective.

The expertise in the field plays an important role on the arbitrator’s end. Anyone with sufficient experience can act as arbitrator. To be entrusted with such responsibility and to be vested with such authority always intrigued me. Needless to say, the arbitral award duly rendered has the same binding effect and the enforceability with a domestic court decision. I call arbitration ‘the new normal’, or dare I say, ‘contemporary way of adjudication’.

What are you most excited to be working on at the moment?

There are couple of things. I contributed to an book on arbitration and it is on its way. I just came from Kigali (Rwanda) where I was invited to speak and I gave a speech on energy investment dipsutes during the OHADA Annual Conference hosted by FIPROD-ERSUMA. My next destination will hopefully be in Lome (Togo) where I am also invited to share my experience and knowledge in arbitration.

I am currently working on an energy arbitration article to be published in an exquisite arbitration magazine. My posts will soon be published on the Kluwer Arbitration Blog. Also, I will be passing the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Fellowship Assessment to become an FCIArb. The arbitration cases where I act as party counsel at the moment thrill me, as I am experiencing new aspects and concepts each and every day.

What figures in the legal sector would you count as your greatest inspirations?

All these years, my father Cemal Sedat Dayioglu has been my mentor in every sense. Once I became a lawyer I started to look up to him even more, as he is a pure doyen in our profession. I would also like to mention my grandfathers. Both of them were lawyers. My grandfather from my father’s side passed away last year due to cancer. Until two days before he passed away, he worked from the hospital bed. My grandfather told me that I was the future of Dayioglu Family and of Dayioglu Legacy, that no matter what I should carry on with my professional life. A wish that I’ll honour and carry out for the rest of my life.

Again, this showed me where I was coming from. This is in my genes. This is in my family. And I am proud of all of them. I am a proud daughter of her parents and of her grandfathers but mostly a proud and a very lucky mentee of her father.

Is there a particular philosophy or set of values that informs your legal work?

The values depend on the person. Be it for my legal practice or my private life, my unshakeable values are as follows:

1. Do not let anything unfinished go until the end, even if it seems to be unknown, fight for your ‘cause’ until the very end. Remember that you are responsible for the journey (legal fight), not necessarily for the destination (outcome).

2. Remember that if you step in the boxing ring you get punched. And that is where we are fighting. Do not let anything stop you.

3. Do not make promises you cannot deliver. Be clear about the expectations. Manage them.

4. Make humanity your main concern. Walk in the shoes of others. Do not judge; understand. This is a more compassionate way of lawyering.

5. Follow your ambitions and combine them with your effort, because those are the things that get you somewhere.

6. Take charge. Do not blame the circumstances.

7. Do not forget or underestimate the power of networking, as you should not go all the way without support. Admit the role of a student and be open to new experiences and knowledge.

8. Make room for your loved ones. Set your priorities wisely and juggle. Family life matters.

9. You cannot win all battles in all fields. Accept defeat with integrity. Take the hit and move on. As long as you learn from the experience, there is nothing louder than that.

10. Do not trade your integrity with anything. Nothing can be as silent as a clean consiousness.

Is there one thing that you feel you could not live without?

Honour and integrity. But honestly, I want to ask: what is the point of feeling that we cannot live if something is denied to us or we are deprived of something? We are all survivors. We were born alone and we will eventually die alone.

I personally do not believe in this concept. Even though I may strongly suffer, I can live without anything if I have no choice. Desperation is a powerful state of being. But this does not mean that I do not have any fear of losing people or things. I have strong attachments. However, I am lucky to have so much to lose in this life – and I will keep it this way.

How do you measure your success?

For me, a successful person is someone who manages their environment, be it with work, family or friends, especially when faced with challenges and chaos. It is a combination of wisdom, determination, constant effort and a certain level of capability. It is how this person relates with obstacles and surmounts them. And this should be ascertained differently for every person, taking into account their background and the circumstances.