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

The main challenge was guiding the business as a first-line support function in challenging economic times. This involved activity in many areas, including regulatory compliance, competition matters, contractual implementation, litigation governance and change management. All these aspects were individually critical milestones to live in, get used to and manage for lawyers and companies. We also supported LeasePlan’s transition to ECB supervision, ensuring compliance with local and international regulations and company policies.

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

Everyone can reach information and data quickly and easily in today’s rapidly evolving world. The key element of any in-house lawyer within a company is touching all colleagues and clients in an articulate, comprehensible and deeply embedded way of working. We must transform the legal culture to a new, more empathetic, and efficient one, determining risks and trying to find agile solutions using digital tools instead of saying “no” directly.

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?

Training was given by us to each and all employees to create awareness of competition laws and build up an internal team about competition matters. We are experienced in managing all competition processes and policies with all stakeholders magnificently with good monitoring and very low expense.