Birsel, Mahmut (Tevfik) (b. September 15, 1929, Karşıyaka, Izmir), lawyer and academic. He served on the Vehbi Koç Foundation Board of Directors between 1996 and 2013.
He completed his studies at Izmir Atatürk High School in 1946 and graduated from Ankara University Faculty of Law in 1950. After completing his doctoral studies at Paris Law Faculty, he was registered to the bar in Izmir in 1955. He taught agricultural law at Ege University Faculty of Agriculture and worked as a commercial law assistant at Izmir School of Economics and Commerce (Izmir Academy for Economics and Commercial Sciences, IAECS, as of 1959). He became associate professor at IAECS in 1962, before becoming professor of law at Ege University (EU) Faculty of Economics and Commercial Sciences in 1970.
Professor Birsel served on the EU senate as member (1972-74) and vice rector (1973-74). Following the foundation of the EU Faculty of Law in 1978, he was appointed chair of international law and lectured in commercial law and international private law. He was director of the EU College of Justice from 1981 to 1982 and retired of his own volition in 1983.
Until 2017, Professor Birsel worked as a lawyer at Birsel Law Offices, which he co-founded in 1976. He served on the Koç University School of Law Advisory Board, the International Chamber of Commerce Arbitration Council and Arbitration Commission. He has produced numerous publications on different branches of commercial law, predominantly in the fields of commercial enterprise, corporations and international arbitration.