What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?

One challenge has been the volatile nature of the Turkish market in general. The regulatory landscape in Türkiye can unexpectedly change sometimes and we, as in-house counsels, need to be alert and prepared at all times. Depending on the instancy and impact of the change or new regulation, the legal team follows up the situation and deploys necessary measures and action plans going forward. For global companies, it requires additional layers of work, for example, wider team discussions and approvals. As it requires full focus and dedication besides the daily workload, I can define this as the biggest challenge of the last year. Adaptability and sustainability are the key in these moments, especially when the rest of your team members require your input, collaboration and guidance.

In your opinion, what areas should in-house lawyers focus on over the next few years to prove value to their organisations in Türkiye?

This is a topic that we have given a thought of recently. The response to this question would differ depending on the legal team structures of each organisation. However, generally speaking, right team management (taking initiatives to enable decentralisation to the extent possible and viable), right external legal counsel management (picking the most appropriate external counsel team in terms of efficiency, practicality and cost effectiveness) and also being a valued, understanding and solution-oriented team member for the non-legal colleagues are all essential factors to focus on.

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?

I can share two concrete examples. The first one was to organise quarterly newsletters as well as regular legal update emails from one of our valued external counsels to be circulated among the teams in each country (I look after five countries in Southern Europe). This has been a great deal of help for all of us as we were able to be informed simultaneously and discuss over these texts which have been prepared by legal professionals. The texts were reader friendly both in English and in Turkish so that we have been able to share them with our hub and global colleagues. The second example I can give was to create certain user-friendly contract templates on frequently used matters and circulate among the teams after introducing each to the teams. The idea was to bring practicality and some speed in the contract drafting processes where the business would fill in the required commercial details in the draft and share with the in-house counsel for final touch. For some relatively complicated deals, we have alignment calls to go over the draft altogether before finalisation which is also very efficient and helpful both for the business and the legal.