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

The number one challenge that has impacted us the most over the past year has been coping with emerging and growing areas of compliance, such as data privacy, competition law, remote working and environmental sustainability governance.

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

It has become clear for many professionals in the industry that legal operations will become continually more relevant, given the growing responsibilities and tasks. Legal procedures should not only focus on technological developments but also enhance the integration of the legal function with the business operations.

Data governance and data privacy will stay the top area of legal focus. Compliance with new regulations, especially in environmental sustainability, will remain a significant area where legal departments will be highly involved.

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 have been running a legal mentorship project for the last three years. Through this project, we provide an average of 25 young lawyers or university students mentorship for one month through one-to-ones, lectures by our company’s leadership team and experts and by renowned private practice lawyers and academicians. Through this programme, our mentees better understand their options as they enter their professional lives and have a deeper understanding of the differences between in-house, private practice and academic professions. They know the expectation of the commercial teams from the legal profession. We have received excellent feedback from our mentees, making us proud of the initiative.