Arda Barlas, Esq.
Arda focuses his practice on key areas of business law, including corporate law, real estate, finance, and mergers and acquisitions. He is admitted to practice law in Florida, the District of Columbia, and Turkey. Arda began his career in Istanbul, Turkey, where he focused on mergers and acquisitions transactions and international arbitration matters at a major law firm. He later worked as an associate in the business and finance group at another prominent law firm in Miami, Florida. Arda is fluent in both English and Turkish.
Arda has extensive experience advising investment banks, specialty lenders, issuers, sponsors, mortgage loan sellers, and real estate investors on real estate transactions, commercial mortgage-backed securities, and similar debt securities. He has represented strategic buyers and sellers, as well as private equity funds, in the acquisition and sale of both public and private targets. His responsibilities included participating in legal due diligence exercises, conducting comprehensive legal due diligence reviews, and drafting detailed vendor and seller due diligence reports. Additionally, he has drafted various corporate transaction documents, including share purchase agreements, asset purchase agreements, and merger agreements.
Arda has a robust background in international arbitration, representing clients in disputes arising from mergers and acquisitions transactions, share purchase agreements, shareholders agreements, and construction agreements. He has represented clients before arbitral tribunals and at all levels of domestic courts in connection with international arbitration matters. Moreover, he interned at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), where he worked closely with team leaders and counsels on the administration of ICSID cases and institutional projects.
During his law school tenure, Arda served as a Research Assistant at the International Arbitration Institute at the University of Miami School of Law. In this role, he contributed to drafting an amicus curiae brief for the U.S. Supreme Court case GE Energy Power Conversion France SAS v. Outokumpu Stainless USA, LLC. He also worked on projects related to cost management in international arbitration and the implementation of blockchain technology in international arbitration. Furthermore, Arda served at the Investor Rights Clinic of the University of Miami School of Law, where he represented underserved investors in securities arbitration claims against their brokers before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).