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

After attending courses with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, we started to represent our group companies in arbitration lawsuits. There have been eight cases so far. This has considerably reduced our litigation costs. Additionally, after spending long hours on it, we started using software where we can control the work and cases that we outsource, and easily check in with our outside counsel who assumed that work.

Even in the best-case scenario, Covid is likely to have far-reaching ramifications. How are you safeguarding the long-term health of the business?

Well, Covid taught us that we should always keep at least a part of every team safe. So, we require some of them to work from home from time to time, and if the psychological effects of being isolated are put aside, we acknowledge that much of our work can be done remotely actually. Therefore, we are now working on our options to set up a permanent hybrid scheme whereby some team members can work remotely. This may allow us to reorganise the way our offices are designed; thus, we can downsize a bit and decrease our costs and our footprint too.

In what ways do you see the in-house legal role evolving in your region over the next few years?

Turkish construction companies which have projects outside Türkiye are being increasingly forced every day to do business in countries that are politically, legally, and financially instable. Therefore, having a sound, general knowledge about the legal system of the country your company is operating in, should enable you to choose the correct counsel for the resolution of different legal problems that may arise in that legal system and be agile in reacting to various problems at the right place and time with suitable means. Those qualifications inevitably require experience. Therefore, I think that in-house teams will decrease the number of the employees they have, to make way for good lawyers who can also tackle a problem by evaluating its various facets such as customs, tax, banking issues, with commercial acumen whenever it is needed. This is because it is not possible (and will not get easier) to travel to countries where our companies are operating with a team of 2-3 lawyers plus managers and people from finance department and more. Partly because of the deteriorating security situation in those countries but also due to increasing costs of travelling, accommodation, staying healthy while travelling against decreasing numbers in profitability despite high risks our companies are undertaking.