About

Wine and spirit maker Mey İçki was established in 2004 following the privatisation of Tekel’s alcoholic drinks division. Led by general counsel and company secretary Meltem Azbazda, the company’s legal team of seven has been reorganised to allocate work according to expertise contained within the department. Lawyers in the team are assigned to business units and train the internal client on ways of working with the legal department. Through this strategy it is evident the legal team occupy and play key roles in the business operations. Not only is Azbazda personally a member of the executive committee, but every lawyer in the department also has direct contact with the other members of the executive committee and the CEO, if and when needed. In light of the emergence of the black market in Turkey for alcohol and tobacco, Azbazda says the ‘legal department has supported the business to adapt and survive in the “black market” conditions, by taking a more commercial and innovative approach, whilst remaining in the legal boundaries of the legislation’. The team achieved this in a number of ways including preparing new policies and guidelines, organising trainings for staff and business partners and developing relations with authorities to have clarity on the interpretation of new legislation. Furthermore when export of bulk Rakı, a traditional Turkish alcoholic beverage product, was suddenly prohibited by an official administration in 2015, the legal department obtained an injunction and enabled the company to continue with exportation, with the lawsuit finalised in favour of the company.