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

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Türkiye was very active in the regulatory sphere. A major challenge during this period was staying updated on changing laws and assessing their impact to the business, while providing quick and agile solutions. As a mother, working from home due to the pandemic and its impact on traditional working methods was another challenge.

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

I think reactive approaches will no longer bring success to companies. Every year in Türkiye, legal predictability or certainty is reduced. Thus, compliance activities should be the major focus in order to prevent future risks.

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 created a legal app which enables people to upload template documents or Q&A. Stakeholders can use this app to ask questions, which uses artificial intelligence to reply to questions and communicate on our behalf, before resorting to the legal department.