About

Legal affairs director Ayşe Tümerkan joined Abdi İbrahim, the first Turkish company on the list of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, in 2008 to assist with legal work produced in the business development department. At that time there was no in-house legal department, so Tümerkan gradually built the integral structures of a functioning team and started providing legal assistance to other departments of the business. Three years later she established the legal department as a separate entity in the company ‘for the first time in the history of Abdi Ibrahim’, she says proudly. When working with outside counsel she expects a business-oriented perspective. Tümerkan believes it is essential for outside counsel to take into consideration the specifics of the industry and the company’s history in similar projects. ‘Of course, this requires long term and dedicated relations between the client and the law firms’ she adds.