About

The legal team of SOCAR Trading, a Swiss crude and trading oil company specialised in Azeri Light crude oil of Azerbaijan, has grown from three to six members with four new members joining the team in the past two years. Even with this growth the team retains a very close relationship with the business as management relies on the legal department’s input for material decisions. By expanding the team, and obtaining new and different skills, the commercial teams and management feel more comfortable departing from the core business of the company, trading, and broaden it to infrastructure projects, M&A and investments. As the company expands, the team has implemented training programs in the different offices based around the globe. With creation of new subsidiaries and offices in different time zones, legal support now needs to work around the clock. Vincent Mohy, general counsel, says that ‘by opening offices in the European Union and North America, this brought us within the scope of new rules and regulations, which we have had to familiarise ourselves with and have had to design processes and templates adapted to these regulations’.