Can you please give us an idea of the sort of work your team has done recently (cases, transactions, projects)?

More than 30 group companies within the body of Bilgili Holding operate in a wide range of sectors including tourism, real estate, and real estate investments. Bilgili Holding makes real estate investments, primarily in America, through agreements with different institutions in America and Europe. Our legal team fulfils the duty of establishing partnerships related to these investments while following the legal processes with local lawyers to protect the company from any possible legal disputes. In addition, we also carry out follow-ups and management of international arbitration processes. To create legal solutions to the group companies’ issues, our legal tea monitors corporate affairs, contracts, administrative authorities and officials. Major tasks carried out last year within our legal department are the management of two different international arbitration processes, including transfer and acquisition of companies, creation and management of internal company operational projects.

Which recent political, economic, or regulatory changes have impacted the company and the team the most?

With Türkiye’s current economic problems, the foreign exchange/interest policy, enacting to lease state lands to private individuals, has impacted our company’s business. The pandemic created more difficult working conditions to in-house lawyers. There was a huge increase of workload for us as uncertainties in business required more legal supports to navigate various projects in an unprecedented time. Securing work/life balance has become much more difficult for us. However, I believe that implementation of remote working will turn into an advantage in our industry in a long-term perspective.