About

The seven-person Attica Group legal team is led by general counsel and director of legal and corporate affairs Yiota Krassakopoulou, who prioritises a hierarchy that is ‘as flat as possible’ within the group. The goal of this, she explains, ‘is for each lawyer to undertake responsibility for the case they handle and own it under the guidance and advice of the head of the department’, which leads to excellent results in terms of skills development both individually and as a team. Indeed, it has helped in the successful completion of complex projects for the company. Krassakopoulou goes into just some of these: ‘The integration of Hellenic Seaways (HSW) in the Attica Group structure continues to provide a constant challenge for the legal team, as there is need for continuous support to various departments for handling of relevant matters. The successful and smooth conclusion of this strategic task in terms of technical processes as well as on matters referring to human resources, has been at the top of the legal team’s priorities. In the meantime, the department continues to support individual directorates and top management in the everyday core business. Most notably, at the end of last year we successfully concluded the refinancing of a number of company’s loan facilities’. The integration of HSW also had important ramifications on the internal structure of the team – perhaps unsurprisingly given it was among the largest transactions in the sector recently – as it saw the two legal teams of the separate businesses merge. ‘This resulted in a significant increase in size of the legal department and the expansion of its expertise’, Krassakopoulou explains. When discussing what she believes are the fundamental explanations for the team’s success, Krassakopoulou puts it down to ‘high quality safeguarding of the company’s interests through team work and individual responsibility and based on honesty, transparency and integrity. This principle is constantly being cultivated by individual communication and coaching by the head of team towards all team members and largely by way of example’.