Cooperative Education Success Stories From the Students of the Faculty of Law
2 YEAR(S) AGO
Thanks to the “Cooperative education Program”, the Faculty of Law at TOBB ETÜ succeeds in training law practitioners who are aware of the intricacies of the field. “Cooperative education Program” refers to an educational model unique in Turkey, introduced for the first time by TOBB ETÜ. The students of the Faculty of Law, who take part in this system spend three semesters of the program at an environment where the practice of law is predominant. The experience equips the students of TOBB ETÜ, Faculty of Law with an awareness of everyday practices of the COURTS, LEADING LAW OFFICES, BANKS, or LEGAL COUNSEL DEPARTMENTS OF CORPORATIONS in the company and under the supervision of their professors, and makes them stand out in the crowd of graduates who are unable to write even a petition upon graduation. Furthermore, thanks to the cooperation protocol executed in 2010, our students get the opportunity to spend one semester of their cooperative educations at the CONSTITUTIONAL COURT itself. Moreover, they are also given the option to spend one semester of the cooperative education at a law office registered with the bar associations of the United States or Europe.
The fictional courtroom, in turn, gives the students gain applied hearing experience, and witness the order and operation of courtrooms.
The fictional courtroom, in turn, gives the students gain applied hearing experience, and witness the order and operation of courtrooms.
Dilan Can Kavak
Cooperative Education Site: Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Appeals
My name is Dilan Can KAVAK. I was admitted to the Faculty of Law at TOBB Economics and Technology University, in 2011. One of the major reasons leading me to choose TOBB ETÜ was the “Cooperative education / Internship Mobility” opportunities its students enjoyed. One of the most remarkable internship experiences I had was the one at the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Appeals. During my internship, we took part in the hearings before a number of chambers at the Court of Appeals. It gave me the chance to witness the procedures of hearings at the Court of Appeals. We were there during hearings on Labor and Social Security Law at the 21st Chamber of Law, on Commercial Law at the 23rd Chamber of Law, and on Homicide at the 1st Chamber of Criminal Law. We also had the opportunity to have one-on-one meetings with the chairmen and members of the chambers. Furthermore, we scanned all the procedure-related rulings issued by all chambers of the Court of Appeals in 2014, under the supervision of Mr. Mustafa Ateş, the member of the 2nd Chamber of Law. This gave us the opportunity to observe differences of perspectives various chambers of the Court of Appeals would have on a given issue. We were given the opportunity to make a robust analysis of the rulings by the Court of Appeals. Having a close view of and serving as an intern at the Court of Appeals, the higher court of Turkish Judicial System was a most effective experience for me. The direct communications with the members of the Court of Appeals, as well as the rapporteurs expanded my horizons thanks to their legal- as well as life-experience. It was an internship that met and exceeded my expectations.
Elif Büşra Kaya and Sabiha Buşra Demir
Cooperative education Site: Michigan State University, US
Spring Semester 2014 (January-April)
During the winter of 2014, we had our cooperative education at the Michigan State University in the US. We spent 3.5 months in Lansing within the framework of the cooperative education program. There, we not only had the chance to study as visiting students, but also to observe proceedings at the court for two days a week, not to mention experience in legal clinics. Two LL.M courses we took –American Constitution and the Criminal Procedure Law– enabled us to get acquainted with the Anglo-Saxon legal system, which was a bit foreign to us, and to expand our horizons in terms of legal lingo proficiency, as well as self-development. The courses we took and the court cases we observed helped us to get a better assessment of our own courses and the court systems for all their worth. In this context, we believe that we are very lucky to have the Cooperative education system that made it possible for us to venture beyond the borders of our country and even those of the continental Europe. We also believe that such a beneficial system makes our university a better choice for many. We would like to voice our gratitude to the whole TOBB ETÜ family who gave us this extraordinary opportunity and who helped us throughout, including but not limited to our esteemed Dean, Prof. Çiğdem Kırca, and Deputy Dean Assist. Prof. Ozan Ergül.
Ayşe İrem Pehlıvanlı
Cooperative Education Site: Constitutional Court
As a 3rd year student at TOBB ETÜ, Faculty of Law, I had my first internship at the Constitutional Court. During my 6 weeks there, I served in the General Assembly, Departments, Commissions, Individual Application Office, and the Research and Jurisprudence Office which are individual units of the court. I also had the chance, under the supervision of rapporteurs, to study the individual application files containing the applicants’ petitions, as well as the admissibility review rulings of the court regarding such applications, the review of which are now among the duties of the Constitutional Court. As a student of the Faculty of Law, I really appreciated the chance to observe the work discipline of Turkey’s high court. In this context, I am truly happy to be a student of TOBB ETÜ, Faculty of Law, which offers its students options beyond the means of any other university.
Ayça Özbek
Cooperative Education Site: Aslan Law Office
Thanks to the cooperative education program, I had the chance to serve as an intern at the best law offices of Turkey. Aslan Law Office, where I am having my most recent internship, is one of the leading law offices of Turkey in the area of Competition Law. It is a real privilege to work on competition law with Prof. Yılmaz Aslan, in Istanbul –a city with an undeniable potential. This opportunity enabled me to have an applied perspective on the knowledge we received at school. Furthermore, I guess my experience with cooperative education would allow me to make better informed decisions on the direction of my future career.
S. Buşra Demir
Cooperative Education Site: Cerrahoğlu Law Office
This semester, I am having my internship within the framework of the Cooperative education program at Cerrahoğlu Law Office employing around 40 lawyers. During my service as an intern, I not only had first-hand observations on the professional work environment, but also the operations of a well institutionalized law office. The weekly meetings where all lawyers came together to discuss the new cases they have, as well as the new regulations introduced, provided me a venue to learn much. Working directly with lawyers I had the opportunity to review the pending case files, and to draft petitions. I also got a close view of the operation of local and foreign corporations, and worked diligently on the preparation and amendment of articles of incorporation, and the general assembly procedures. As Cerrahoğlu Law Office had many foreign clients, I had the opportunity to improve my legal vocabulary in an environment where all documents were written in both Turkish and English. I also performed many translations from English to Turkish and vice versa. There were also occasions where I visited some courts, notaries, and the title deed registry, to have required procedures executed. The experiences I got there developed me immensely in terms of grasping the character of our work and understanding the operations of many entities and organizations concerning our job.
Ayşenaz Tahmaz
Cooperative Education Site: Esin Law Office
Actually, before beginning with my internship at Esin Law Office, I had this image of a law office as a group of lawyers doing not much more than running around in courthouses, and writing petitions. But when you have an internship at larger firms, you do realize that the system is actually much more complicated and different. Firms like Esin Law Office provide counsel by proposing solutions to preempt the conflict in the first place. There, current developments on a number of issues from the construction of the 3rd airport to investments in the energy sector are being watched closely. For, any firm that attempts such an endeavor would definitely need legal counsel. And Esin Law Office is a provider of that counsel. While serving as an intern there I realized that the business world has its authentic discipline I was unable to experience during my previous studies. It is truly crucial to understand what is expected of you, and what you should be careful about while doing your work within the framework of that discipline. One of the most important experiences I had during my internship was to get a whiff of that discipline. After all, any relationship between the companies requires a legal procedure. Contracts, meetings, letters of intent, negotiations... All these are terms we start to hear about from day one at school. In a nutshell, my internship at Esin Law Office gave me the opportunity to put theory into practice, and to learn about the inherent system of the business world. For that delightful experience I received, I want to thank the whole TOBB ETÜ, Faculty of Law, as well as our Dean.
Atacan Köksal
Cooperative Education Site: Pınarak Law Office, Hannover
Within the framework of Erasmus Internship Mobility framework, I served at Pınarak Law Office in Hannover, Germany. As I am a student at the Faculty of Law, I value the experience I had in terms of observing the legal systems of other countries, and comparing and contrasting them with Turkish one. In particular, I gained wholly different perspectives in terms of my professional development, through the new pieces of information I received about the disputes Turks living in Germany may have with Germany and Turkey, the applicability of the rulings by foreign courts, and citizenship procedures. In addition, service at a law office and helping with the day-to-day operations of the office helped me grow outside the specifics of law as well. Yet another advantage offered by the Erasmus program, in turn, is the wealth of opportunities it brings along to improve foreign language skills. Learning about the actual use of German language, how simple daily communications occur, how toning and accents apply are but a few of the experiences you can get by actually living in a foreign country. Finally, the opportunity to meet people from a different culture, and to learn about their life styles, perspectives, values, rules, and outlooks is of course important. Given its demographics, Germany is a country where many distinct cultures come together. There, numerous cultures, not to mention the dominant German one, exist side by side. They are actually interconnected as part of the flow of daily life. I believe the experience of that awareness is an experience in and of itself.
Yudum Özçelik
Cooperative Education Site: Constitutional Court
After the preliminary review, individual applications are submitted to commissions for acceptability review. The commissions review the individual applications on the basis of specific criteria, and decide if they are admissible or not. I reviewed two of the cases forwarded to the rapporteur pending decision, and wrote my report on the admissibility of the cases. Furthermore, I studied relevant books to get a better understanding of the manifestly ill-founded criteria, one of the leading criteria taken into consideration to establish admissibility. I was assigned to serve the General Assembly for two weeks. The General Assembly handles the cases on the constitutionality of laws, as well as the cases for the closing of political parties. I studied one of the cases submitted to the rapporteur. I will now be working at the Research and Case Law unit. I want to thank TOBB Economics and Technology University, Faculty of Law, for the opportunity to have my internship at the Constitutional Court.
Musa Furkan Şahin
Cooperative education Site: Constitutional Court
I served at the Constitutional Court as part of my cooperative education, one of the benefits of being a student of TOBB ETÜ. During my 6 weeks (the 4th of which I completed by now) there, I learned much about the operations and the procedures of the Constitutional Court. The positive attitudes the rapporteurs as well as administrative staff had towards us, and their help and guidance despite all the workload they undertake were really important. We had the opportunity to see the practice regarding the individual application procedure, a must-to-know for any law professional, as well as the practical implications of the regulations involved. This gave us more experience on this matter, than most lawyers already practicing law, or current law school students. In addition, we had the chance to study the rulings by the Constitutional Court in the light of the articles of the constitution, and to get feedback on our assessments, from the rapporteurs we were assigned to. In a nutshell, my internship at the Constitutional Court was a most useful and productive one for me. I owe gratitude to my school for the opportunity they provided me.
Duygu Önerci
Cooperative Education Site: Sarıkaya Law Office
During my education at TOBB ETÜ Faculty of Law, I tried to make the best of the cooperative educations. In the summer semester of the 2nd year, I had my cooperative education at Sarıkaya Law Office in Ankara. For me, it was a process to provide me practical experience as well as substantial command over many terms regarding procedure before I proceeded to the 3rd year of school to further my prior knowledge on procedure, and the chance to get acquainted with many lawyers. Through my experience there, I also found answers to a number of questions which had been puzzling me. But I had two more cooperative educations, and I knew I had to put them to good use. After filing an application for Erasmus internship mobility program, I received admission for a term at an international office employing a staff of roughly 300, at Milan, during the summer semester of my 3rd year. The experiences I had there were about getting to know a new culture, traveling around in Europe, improving my foreign language skills, and last but not least, observing the operation of law on an international platform. For me, upon my return to Turkey the single most important benefit of Erasmus, was to have acquaintances from the wider world in general, and the field of law in particular. The last cooperative education I had was at Gemicioğlu Law Office, which I chose as a place where I could develop myself within the framework of my legal internship, and where I would get a whiff of the business in Istanbul –an important experience in and of itself. Currently I am still working on my cooperative education. But I already learned many things. I realized that most pieces of theoretical knowledge I gained help me in practice, in addition to my daily ventures at the courthouse.
Tuncer Furkan Kanıvar
Cooperative Education Site: Constitutional Court
I had my first semester of the cooperative education –a major factor motivating me for admission to TOBB ETÜ– at the Constitutional Court, a dream-come-true for any law student. I realized the wisdom of my choice upon learning that only TOBB ETÜ students serve as interns at the Constitutional Court, the highest tier of Turkish Legal System, even though there are god-knows-how-many faculties of law in Turkey. I spent each week of my cooperative education with different rapporteurs, working on different topics. During my first three weeks, I served at the application office, commissions, and chamber stages regarding individual applications. I read countless individual application files, reports, and articles. I served in the admissibility stage for individual applications, and carried out admissibility review on the cases the rapporteur I worked with forwarded. For the next stage of my term, I worked at Research and Case Law unit, which strives to ensure consistency in case law within the Constitutional Court. I reviewed the rulings the Constitutional Court issued since its establishment, on the inviolability of domicile, and helped the work of the unit. I would like to note my gratitude to my school and our precious Dean, Prof. Çiğdem Kırca, as well as the rest of TOBB ETÜ for this marvelous opportunity. I am also grateful to my family for raising me to become the person I am.
Kübra Ünlütürk
Cooperative education Site: Sarıkaya Law Office
Within the framework of the course OEG 202 at TOBB ETÜ, I am having my cooperative education in the summer semester of 2012-2013, at the Court of Appeals. Since day one I enjoyed a warm approach by all officers of the court, including but not limited to rapporteurs. At the moment, in line with a request by the judge supervising me, I am studying the Court of Appeals rulings on information technologies crimes, on which I took an elective at school and which I consider a major contribution to my education.
Betül Yağmur Çil
Cooperative Education Site: Constitutional Court
TOBB Economics and Technology University is making a name among the most popular universities of the day, thanks to its ever increasing level of success and quality of education. If one, who is a member of the family that the Faculty of Law at TOBB Economics and Technology University is, has to make a list of the factors contributing to that success and quality, the first elements to mention would be the nature of the education provided and academic qualifications involved. The quality of education provided and the achievements and skills of the academic staff, not to mention the strengths of the teacher-student relationship at the faculty are among the pillars of the education, as well as the means to provide us, the students, with the best education possible. The course contents, practical applications, and the foreign language courses serve to train legal professionals with a diverse focus, and to develop a robust notion of law among us. In addition to these, Cooperative education stands out one of the most important practices which make TOBB ETÜ, Faculty of Law distinct from its peers. In this context, the Faculty of Law offers its students the option to have internships at the leading law offices of Turkey. Thanks to such an immense work experience gained early on, we take our first steps towards the professional life, and get the opportunity to observe practical applications of what we learn, and to gain insights on implementation. Moreover, the program also provides the first taste of distinct sub-fields of law, giving us the chance to expand our horizons on law. Thanks to all these opportunities, we not only graduate one step ahead of the flock, but also have our expectations from the university met and surpassed in the richness of the school environment and social facilities on offer in the arms of the new family the Faculty of Law is for us.