What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?

The aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic continued to affect every aspect of our business and business operating models in the past year. The most important example is the enhanced use of technology and the rapid digital transformation that the companies underwent during the past couple of months. I believe Covid-19 accelerated such digital transformation in the legal business as well. In order to streamline processes and operate more efficiently, we have adopted new technology solutions in our legal department. Due to wide use of technology and especially videoconferencing, we have benefited personally from virtual adaptations of formerly manual processes. We are hoping to acquire other tools that will help us to facilitate new working conditions as a result of the pandemic. Those new tools will include without limitation document management, contract management, e-signature, workflow and collaboration management tools. I believe that the courts as well may use technologies, which will facilitate litigation, arbitration and mediation logistics.

In your opinion, what areas should in-house lawyers focus on over the next few years to prove value to their organisations in Türkiye?

Similar to other lawyers around the globe, cybersecurity, compliance and data protection are the most important areas for businesses that in-house lawyers should focus on to prove value to their organisations in Türkiye. The job of in-house lawyers will become more important than it already is due to overseeing those critical business functions. By performing those additional functions, in-house lawyers will continue to take part in strategic decision making processes, establish strategic plans, ensure that they align with the broader corporate strategy, and adjust course as the business continues to evolve and grow.
Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?

Especially during Covid-19 times, we have team meetings each day with our colleagues in the legal department to plan and talk to each other in order to sustain interactions established during Covid-19. We also do work allocations during those meetings or during the day, through Microsoft planner, which is a work-planning tool in Microsoft Teams. I always believe that good planning is very important for successful work results. Currently, there are also a number of work planning tools in the market which do not come at a large expense but revolutionise the way we work.