Defne Gürsoy Sökmen is a PhD candidate at the Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. She holds degrees in Law from the Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London, and Koç University in Istanbul (Member of the Istanbul Bar).

Her research is funded by the Harley D. Hallett scholarship, as well as the York Graduate Fellowship. Her PhD explores the shift from corporate social responsibility tools of the liberal economy to those of the financial economy, focusing on the use and purpose of voluntary social disclosure mechanisms. She has previously acted as a research assistant for the TLI, and worked as a programmer for the Transnational Law Summit 2018.

She has also worked as a researcher for UNESCO, Freemuse and OSCE on different report projects on artistic freedom, freedom of expression, and anti-slavery.  Defne is currently the co-managing editor of Transnational Legal Theory, a refereed law review of transnational law, leading the student editorial team.