Team size: Seven 

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? 

The past few years have been very challenging and different. Especially for the aviation sector, starting from 2020, we had to deal with unique and innovative projects, such as the health threat with lockdowns and cross-border travel restrictions, which have highlighted the vulnerable nature of aviation industry. Aviation and tourism were leading the largest crisis in recent history with particularly painful consequences.  

We are also facing an uncertain path to recovery, since it is now certain that the world of travel – and, after the developments in Ukraine, the world in general – is very different from what we are accustomed to. The crisis has favoured the “non-physical contact economy”. In parallel, the EU Green Deal has led to the emergence of an extremely complicated legal framework that creates new obligations for the companies aiming to achieve the transition to net zero carbon emissions as soon as possible. 

In this direction, the cooperation of the legal team with all the competent departments of the company, in alignment with the top management, has been more critical and highly demanding than ever. 

At this point, companies need to ensure that they have the necessary governance frameworks. A big part of corporate governance is mandatory – ensuring that our company complies with statutory and conventional requirements; so legal departments have to meet the challenges as they occur. 

What works today is unlikely to work as well tomorrow, when opportunities and risks are different. The world is changing. The role of companies is changing, and climate change is one crucial factor fundamentally reshaping the role of legal departments. Climate change is one of the greatest existential threats to mankind. So, it is entirely important to the strategic success of our companies and should be a top priority on the agenda of corporate conversation.  

The role of in-house legal teams is changing rapidly as the companies we support are going digital, the regulatory environment is getting more complex, and pressure for cost-cutting is growing, while automation is creating new routes to efficiency and insight. Managing culture and shifting mindsets will be essential to drive successful legal operating models built on continuous innovation and improvement.  

The legal department is the conscience of an organisation in many ways and should have effective interactions with the company’s business units. 

Therefore, the chief legal officer, has to listen to its team, its clients, and the external environment to understand the impact on our business. In this direction, the role of the legal department and that of its head is decisive, since it functions as a mediator between the management and the employees and stakeholders, always seeking sustainable and mutually beneficial results. 

A unique approach, as this has been repeatedly identified by our external financial and legal experts and advisors, is that our company’s legal team is at all times heavily involved in assigned projects, like the cases stated hereunder, and act as a unified team along with the external advisors so as to have a common strategy combined with supervising collaboration aiming to the prompt conclusion of the awarded projects as well as to significant cost saving.  

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in? 

Two of the most significant projects that my legal team has recently been involved are vs. the Greek State and more specifically the following: 

Value added Tax (VAT) case. This case has been pending for over ten years now, and remains as one of the most important cases for the legal department, by which the tax authority questioned the right of the sompany to set off the total VAT of all fixed assets acquired, and services rendered until 31 December 2015, as stipulated in the law and proceeded to impose VAT –including penalties – for the financial years 1998-2012. The company referred the case before the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) and although the outcome was favourable for our company in 2013, the dispute is still ongoing by the Greek State before the Administrative Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Athens. This case is not only significant for our company, but it questions the enforcement of the arbitral awards in Greece, for example, that the clauses related to arbitration included in investment concessions are void and this is surely considered a bombshell to the foundations of the arbitration regulatory framework.  

Greek State Rentals: The Greek State questioned the right of the company to be exempted from laws foreseen reduction to the rentals paid by it, calculated on the amounts of rent rates of July 2010, contrary to the stipulations of the company’s law. The company referred the case on 28 December 2022 to arbitration before the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA). 

The company also aims to reach net zero for its CO2 emissions by 2025, prior to the target of 2050 set by Europe’s airports, and the legal team is also involved on this project. 

Furthermore, the company’s legal team was strongly involved in the refinancing of the existing company’s debt, a project which was concluded within a period of two and a half months, a record time for such a significant and complex project with the involvement of many stakeholders as well as the four systemic Greek Banks. 

How important is choosing to work with external lawyers who align with your company’s values? Are you likely to reconsider what firms you work with based on this? 

I strongly believe that choosing external lawyers who have a deep understanding of our business and company’s values is of the utmost importance.  

Their engagement offers to our company a significant high level of service in terms of response time, business acumen and industry knowledge, appropriateness of advice, strength-in-depth of team and value for money.  

The depth and breadth of their knowledge ensures that they are able to support our business needs successfully and provide high quality, innovative legal solutions in the increasingly complex area of legislation and practice. We always consider the aforementioned parameters in choosing law firms and periodically enrich the list of external legal advisors working with.