Editors Note: This interview was conducted while Doğan was in the employ of LG Electronics.

Team size: Two

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

Undoubtedly, economical and legislative uncertainty was the most significant challenge, not only for foreign investors, but also local players in recent years in the Turkish jurisdiction. From a business perspective, foreign exchange fluctuation and high inflation substantially impacted on business plans. On the other hand, communication with the relevant governmental agencies and compliance measures are required beforehand the announcement of the law. For instance, in terms of the consumer electronics sector, products to import, products in manufacturing progress and products that are already offered to the market have to comply with the technical requirements simultaneously. However, decision-makers enacted secondary legislation by their sudden decisions. Therefore, entire legal teams struggled in order to comply in all sectors.

Can you outline your role in the legal function of your organisation and any significant cases or  transactions you were involved in?

In our organisation, I was assigned as a leader of the legal department in 2018, when I was 26 years old. Since then, I have been in charge of contract and dispute management, compliance and corporate governance. For contract management, I drafted and reviewed various contracts regarding the day-to-day operations of the company including but not limited to C/SKD and ODM manufacturing. In terms of litigation, I represented my company at all stages of various litigations. At the end of the year 2018, I monitored capital increases process in the amount of $153m. Under the compliance, I implemented of Turkish Data Protection Law which is a relatively similar framework to Directive 95/46/EC, involved in the Turkish Competition Board in two investigations in the field of consumer electronics, involved preliminary investigation and managed two dawn raids that conducted by the TCA. I also worked on the litigation phase of cancellation of Turkish Competition Board penalty lawsuit. Lastly, I ensured compliance in terms of product liability.

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

In previous years, legal departments were considered a business barrier among the organisational structure. However, in recent years, in-house legal roles actively collaborate with other stakeholders. In addition, there has been increased recognition of the compliance field as new compliance roles appear within legal departments. In my opinion, rather than arising issues such as litigation, compliance will be the primary role in the near future for an in-house legal role.