Sibel Almobideen is the general counsel of Global Feeder Shipping Group, a market-leading container shipping group that has its roots back to 1980s and is currently one of the largest ship owning and feeder operators in the Gulf, Indian sub-continent, and South-East Asia. Sibel is a Turkish-qualified lawyer with a master’s in international commercial and maritime law from the UK and over a decade of experience in corporate and maritime law.

In 2021, Sibel was awarded by the Seatrade Maritime Middle East for being 1 of the top 20 maritime industry professionals in the Middle East – a prestigious award recognising the success and achievements of young professionals in the industry. She was also nominated as the general counsel of the year by the Middle East Legal Awards 2022 and a rising star by The Middle East Legal Awards 2021.

She introduces her current legal practice as:

‘My role requires me to pave the way for change in the industry and shed light on innovation, researching new growth opportunities for accommodating our group’s expansion and providing legal support to the management and team across our offices globally. Managing day-to-day legal requirements and assisting management in achieving sound commercial decisions have been my passion in pursuing my practice in different fields of law. It brings along working closely with local authorities, addressing complex challenges, and taking the lead in critical situations. My core objectives are to revamp the shipping industry for viable, sustainable, attractive, and efficient sea transport links integrated into the entire transport chain with facilities and simplified administrative formalities.

I have excelled in many aspects since I joined the company as a sole legal counsel. The starting point was to advise and assist the management in the corporate restructuring in preparation for the expansion we have achieved to date. That involved significant changes in the financial and legal factors from various standpoints, including employment, banking and finance, commercial contracts, real estate, consumer rights, regulatory, and agency laws.

Simultaneously, my key inputs to the group have been demonstrated by implementing up-to-speed policies and tailored agreements for each sector to manage the significant number of claims, potential disputes, and liability exposure. For instance, I created our Slot Charter Agreement, Common Carrier Agreement, Vessel Sharing, and JV Agreement, distributed to the customers and partners, and our standard Agency Agreement, distributed to all agents in all ports worldwide.

I have minimised expenses for external legal counsel by taking over the lead on all corporate legal aspects of the group. Together with our vice president — commercial department, we have created a well-established procedure for the handling of claims to provide an efficient legal advising structure within the group. We have also built a system to ensure a smooth and efficient framework between the legal, commercial, and operation departments. I enjoyed being closely involved in the technical part of the business, which has inspired me to innovate and present new ideas to improve operational efficiency, design and implement business models and develop legal solutions for the common good.’