Team size: seven

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

We have been involved in various Aircraft Financing Leasing Transactions recently those are including UKEF Guaranteed French Tax Lease Structure and JSA Commercial Financing Structure.

What do you think are the biggest risks facing your industry at the moment and how are you preparing your company and team to face these risks? 

It is obvious that the biggest risk facing our industry at the moment is Covid-19. Business units in our company work in their fields of expertise to reduce or eliminate the damages of this risk as much as practically possible. We, as legal, also support these business units from the legal point of view. In particular, during the Covid-19 pandemic, we evaluated the force majeure clauses of each agreement which the company is a party, within the scope of Covid-19 effects and advised the business units on all the possible majeures that can be taken arising from the respective agreement and explained the risks that may be associated with Covid 19. After we have experienced the Covid-19 force majeure situation, we have revised our standard force majeure wordings that can be used in the agreements in several fields and adjusted them more progressively. In addition, we are working on a regulation pillar project so that the aircraft leasing operations (financial and operating) in the Turkish aviation industry can be carried out more effectively, efficiently, and without being stuck in bureaucratic processes.  We believe, if successfully achieved, this project will ease the leasing process and enable the airlines to enter leasing agreements for low, winter and high/summer seasons in less bureaucratic procedures under the established rules and ends the uncertainty on the studied subject.

As we enter the next decade, what skills will a corporate legal team need to succeed in the modern in-house industry?

We believe that a corporate legal team should have the following knowledge and skills: legal skills in different areas and ability to assess the risks and support the relevant parties in a sufficient way; business and commercial knowledge and awareness by considering the rules and implementations of the company; ability to deal and combine legal and business knowledge and skills; excellent writing, communication, and negotiating skills. It is also important to be able to balance multiple requests more efficiently and practice time management and priority order, especially in crisis moments.