About

Hilal Utku is L’Oréal’s legal director for Turkey and a member of the country management committee. Since joining L’Oréal, Utku has had a big impact on the Turkish legal department by prioritising personal interaction, helping to build trust and respect across the team and with other departments. She has also successfully positioned the function as a business partner, something which she says helps the team to both implement projects and to protect the company’s interests: ‘Once you build these relationships, business consults you more frequently, which is the best way to ensure compliance. [Effective] compliance and legal risk management is a natural outcome of this working style’. Utku’s work has been noted by numerous stakeholders, both internally and externally, and has helped the company deal with recent regulatory changes in the Turkish market. Her unique ability to build rapport and form synergies with external counsel has also enabled her to deliver complex compliance projects. Utku previously spent five years within HP’s in-house legal department in Turkey, during which time she also spent two years as a remote country counsel for Greece, in which capacity she worked without any local in-house support and helped to build a close working relationship with the local leadership team. Another highlight from Utku’s role at HP was her involvement in a compliance project in consumer law, which led to noticeable reduction in the company’s disputes portfolio. She began her career as a consultant and senior counsel at the ACTECON Competition and Regulation Consultancy.