Team size: Over 50

First, can you please give us an idea of the sort of work your team has done recently?

I have worked for Visa for nearly two years as part of the commercial legal team. I looked after nine countries under the Central Eastern Europe and Southern Europe clusters. After one month of working in the Istanbul office, the pandemic broke out and required us to work remotely. Despite this challenge, I have found myself in quite critical and prominent projects with our legal team on a wide variety of matters due to the active and evolving nature of Visa. I have worked on a variety of data privacy and compliance projects, offered legal advice, contractual conflicts, drafting of agreements and assisting the team in crucial technology projects and partnerships among others.

How do you feel the pandemic has changed the world of work for in-house counsel and the function of the general counsel?

To begin with, it is proven now that remote working is possible and is productive. With that said, hybrid working models are being discussed, which I find very flexible and promising in terms of productivity and effectiveness. However, face-to-face communication is key on some occasions and is not easily replaced. Therefore, I believe a hybrid work environment could bring this balance, create a better business, and work environment.

Specifically speaking for in-house counsel, I refer to my explanations above and underscore two things which are key for in-house counsel: to be able to focus, prioritise and reach out to the necessary resources and to always be in close contact with the business and compliance stakeholders. The general counsel function is a fundamental support function for a corporate organisation with two main purposes, gatekeeping and partnership with the business. Due to the pandemic conditions, the close contact element has been dramatically impacted but we found successful ways to settle in and get adapted to this “new normal” with the help of our company approach and colleagues. During this period, I have observed that more people turned to their legal departments to feel secure in this new kind of environment.

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

An in-house lawyer should show that they are there to help and support but keep within the legal, regulatory and compliance framework. Legal is one of the most important support functions and stakeholders to the business and so should be widely understood. In-house counsel should be able to find solutions for the business but if there are times which warrant a clear no, in-house counsel should be able to explain the reasoning clearly and suggest a different solution too.