Team size: Three

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

I have started as legal director at TAV Construction by the beginning of this year. So, the number one challenge that has impacted me over the past year was changing my job after 7 years. My previous job as general counsel at Huawei Turkey was completely a different sector, and different corporate culture, so it was a significant breakthrough for me. I believe that such change refreshened my vision and enthusiasm in my career path.

The second big challenge over the past years was the pandemic. We have gone through a time of remote or hybrid work style which was quite unfamiliar for most of us, and new terms such as social distancing, lockdowns, online meetings have been introduced. This year, returning to offices and adapting again to full time office work was also quite challenging. For sure, the pandemic left a deep remark in everyone and caused new changes in business life, such as some companies adopting hybrid work style.

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

Apart from legal functions’ daily routine works, in-house lawyers have two main functions; the first one is the proactive function which includes risk anticipation and prevention to save cost and time for risk remediation; and the second one is risk remediation. If the proactive function can be used efficiently, then the risk will be reduced, and it will also help the companies to save for cost and time for disputes and any other risk remediation.

To have an efficient and fully engaged legal proactive function, the in-house lawyers should be “powered” by a combination of technology, process, and personnel resourcing.

Further, the interaction between the legal department and the business units is also crucial for an efficient legal function. I recommend to all in-house lawyers to broaden their vision and get familiar with their business and build a strong communication with all business units. If in-house lawyers are involved in projects, transactions etc. from the very beginning, and there is a healthy communication with the business units, then it is easier to control and mitigate the legal risks at the very beginning.

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?

We set up weekly internal meetings with the legal team members. These internal meetings became hybrid to the new work style implemented after the pandemic. These meetings really helped to align with each team member and exchange experience and ideas.