About

What are the most important transactions and litigation that you have been involved in during the last two years?

I had the opportunity to manage a litigation case which is a lawsuit with the highest dispute amount before the Turkish courts. The case is a portfolio compensation lawsuit and filed against a distributor of the company. The impacts of the lawsuit would be so serious and therefore it was the priority of my company in global and created the necessity for changing the business structure globally.

I had involved in Competition Board dawn raid and investigation process initiated by the Turkish Competition Board against my company which was dominant in the relevant market. Since I was also in charge for compliance department and since I had taken the necessary actions for the company to fulfil the requirements foreseen for dominant companies under the Competition Law, the investigation is ended in favour of my company without imposing any fine.

Local production project was another important transaction that I had involved during the past two years. Rather than importation, my company started local production in one of its competitor’s premises in order to benefit tax and price advantages. After a while, my company started exportation from this factory in Turkey to European affiliates.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners?

The major difference between a law firm lawyer and in-house lawyer is that an in-house lawyer has the chance to understand all details and processes of the company’s operation. The in-house lawyer can involve in each step of the business and it makes him/her able to see the full picture. This is an advantage for in-house lawyers and in order to take this advantage, an in-house lawyer must always be in contact with other business units. An in-house lawyer should not isolate him/herself from both commercial and non-commercial departments.

Monthly one to one meetings can be starting point of a strong relationship with the line of business. However, in order to maintain the relation, there are also some other methods to follow. Firstly, positive communication and empathy are very important tools for this, as colleagues do not have time to read long memorandums. For this reason, we should be very simple and give the message directly. We should make them understand that we are on the same boat and in-house lawyers are not there to prevent the business. In contrary, to support the business!

Indeed, building strong relationship is an example of “win-win case”. Because if people in the line of business have strong relation with the in-house lawyer, they feel free to ask their daily issues and this prevents the risk in the beginning before it happens. This also brings success for the in-house lawyer.

What do you feel are the most effective techniques for getting the most out of external counsel, in terms of how to instruct them?

External lawyers who do not have in-house experience sometimes cannot understand the operational needs and the importance of time management for the business. Therefore rather than giving to the point answers, they prefer writing long and detailed opinions with legal terminology. In such cases, as the in-house lawyer of my company, I would have to re-word the opinions for the line of business in order to make it simple and understandable.

In order not to lose time and not to waste efforts mutually, I do not ask a general question to the law firms. I make a brief of the issue and then ask my specific questions in different bullet points. I ask them to give very simple and short answers to my questions.  Accordingly, they only insert the answer of my questions with “Yes” or “No” answer and can make explanation if it is asked. Upon receiving the written answers, I request a short call to confirm my understanding.

FOCUS ON: The Importance of Digitalisation

In our daily lives, we as in-house counsel receive many questions and approval requests and, most of the time, the answer repeats the previous ones. We respond same or similar questions for several times. But it is obvious that the world is changing and artificial intelligence is everywhere. Why don’t we benefit from the digital world for our daily legal matters and why do we prefer wasting our time? I think it is time to stop.

Most of us may not be aware of it but there are digital systems which reduce time spent on answering same questions and requests repeatedly. It is easy to customise an application in line with needs of the business. Accordingly, by using such an application you can transform your internal processes into digital systems. Think about an application which you can ask your questions related to legal and compliance verbally and hear the answer from the application again verbally. It is not a wish list because it is real and is already being used by some companies. The contribution of such an application to the resources of the company is considerably high as it reduces the amount of wasted time of both the in-house lawyer and the employee who needs a legal advice. An in-house lawyer who gets familiar with the operation and daily business knows the most frequently asked questions and areas to be cleared out. Accordingly, all those questions are uploaded with their answers into the application. Rather than writing or trying to reach out the in-house counsel, the employee opens the application and no need to write anything. They can directly ask the question to the application verbally and the application responds to the question in the same way; verbally. The process is so fast and not wasting time of anyone.

Another example is digitalisation of approval systems. In global companies, approvals are necessary to maintain their processes. But for each specific issue, thresholds and approvers may be different. It is difficult to track all those requirements each and every time. The approval requirements on the same may change even in different affiliates of the same company. However we can handle all those approvals with a software customised for the company. Each requirement for the specific approval type will be assigned automatically by the system in line with the request type and the approvers as well as thresholds will be designated by the system automatically. The receiver will have the approval request and all other requirements will be checked by the system. In other means, the in-house lawyer will be confident that other requirements for the approval are met and therefore they are able to receive the approval request. Otherwise, the system would stop the process if the request exceeds the limits foreseen for this type of request.

As you may see, digitalisation works also in the legal world and it can contribute in-house lawyers in their daily operations. We should not postpone it and remember that it is time for us to digitalise!