With over 20 years of experience advising leading multinational and national companies, Stathis Alexakis specialises in commercial, competition, corporate, and contract law, particularly in the automotive and telecommunications sectors. He combines legal expertise with commercial judgement to support growth, compliance, and effective risk management.

A board-level legal executive, he is a trusted adviser to shareholders, boards, and executive leadership in complex business environments involving multinational operations, selective distribution systems, syndicated financing, restructuring, and governance.

Since 2008, Stathis has served as Head Legal Counsel for three National RENAULT & DACIA Importers, each under different, unrelated shareholders – a run spanning 18 years that reflects both his sector depth and his ability to build legal, governance, and compliance frameworks from the ground up.

He currently holds this role at Grand Automotive Hellas, part of the Taavura Holdings Group, where he established the Legal Department and now oversees all legal matters for its wholesale and retail operations in Greece. He advises executive management and shareholders on governance, regulatory matters, commercial strategy, and enterprise risk, whilst leading legal support across dealer network management and contracts.

Previously, as Head of Legal and Board Member at Teoren Motors from 2013 to 2025, he led all legal, governance, compliance, and risk management functions for the company and its affiliates, advising shareholders and senior management on restructurings, financing, and high-impact decisions. He also oversaw GDPR, governance, and legal operations for affiliated entities and offshore companies.

His earlier role at PGA Motors Greece (2008–2013) saw him establish the Legal Department during a period of operational transition, managing significant litigation whilst ensuring compliance with EU competition law and the Block Exemption Regulations governing automotive distribution.

Across his career he has led major restructurings and network transformations, including the full legal restructuring of Renault’s distribution network in Greece, which avoided substantial compensation exposure. He has negotiated and structured over €300m. in financing facilities, including syndicated loans, executed debt asset swap transactions exceeding €47m. On the litigation side, he has mitigated over €25m. in potential legal exposure, successfully defending all dealer-initiated legal actions.

Beyond RENAULT, he has advised importers representing PEUGEOT, CHEVROLET, KAWASAKI, and SIXT on complex importer, agency, and distribution agreements, financing structures, and shareholder transactions.

He holds an LL.B. and LL.M. in Civil & Contracts Law – both with Honours – from the University of Athens (Law School) and an M.Sc. for Corporate Lawyers from ALBA Graduate Business School and is a certified Data Protection Officer.

Now recognised in The Legal 500 General Counsel Powerlist for Greece & Cyprus for a fifth consecutive year (2022–2026), Stathis brings a solutions-oriented mindset focused on aligning legal strategy with commercial success and long-term business performance.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure organisational resilience?

Managing legal matters in unstable times comes down to one thing: staying ahead of the issues. And staying ahead is never improvisation. It is the result of knowing the legal framework in depth, understanding exactly where the red lines are, and moving with confidence through the grey areas in which every business operates. Red lines are absolute. Grey areas are where an experienced in-house lawyer earns his keep. I am not there to block the business. I am there to open the road.

More than twenty years in the automotive sector have made one thing clear: instability is not the exception here; it is the operating condition. Pandemic, semiconductor shortage, supply-chain shocks, electrification, EU regulation in a state of permanent overhaul – defensive, hesitant legal thinking does not survive in this environment. You stay close to the business, you understand what drives revenue and risk, and you get involved in the decision before it is taken, not after. That is the only place where legal influences outcomes.

At Grand Automotive Hellas, National Importer of Renault and Dacia in Greece, I built the Legal Department from scratch – governance, compliance, contracts, dealer network – designed to support the business, not to slow it down. Discipline where it matters, speed where profitability matters more.

Legal strategy must run within the business strategy, not alongside it. Overbuilt legal protection is worthless if it kills opportunity. The job is to keep the company moving – safely, but forward. Contracts that hold under pressure, relationships with partners, dealers and authorities that create room to manoeuvre when things become tight.

Resilience is not built in a crisis. It is built long before it. Preparation, trust within the organisation, and a legal mindset that anticipates rather than reacts. Protect the company without ever holding it back. That is the job.

What is one leadership principle or practice that has had the greatest impact on your career as a GC?

Credibility is not conferred by a title. It is built through the quality of the work you deliver and the positions you are willing to defend. When you sit at the table with shareholders, board members and executive leadership, what counts is whether they trust your judgement and know that you will stand behind every word you say.

Over more than twenty years, I have built that credibility in one specific way. I read. Case law, regulatory developments, doctrine, court reasoning – every day, without exception. It is non-negotiable. A GC who drifts away from the law loses the authority to lead on legal matters, sooner or later. When I give a view, it rests on a real legal basis. Not on impressions. Not on what sounds reasonable in the room.

That is why I give clear answers. I am not the kind of Legal Counsel who hides behind “on the one hand and on the other hand” or lists three possible interpretations and leaves the business to choose. When a decision must be made, I take a position. I say what the right answer is, I explain why, and I take full responsibility for the wording. Shareholders and executives do not need a menu of options. They need a clear voice, a target destination and specific directions to get there.

Commitment to the business is the other side of the same principle. Legal excellence in isolation has limited value. I have led legal departments through restructurings, syndicated financings, distribution reorganisations and high-stakes disputes. In every one of them, the value I brought was not only legal analysis but also the ability to turn that analysis into a decision the business could use. A GC who protects the company’s interests as though they were his own becomes, over time, part of how the company thinks.

What is the most overlooked skill or mindset that today’s in-house lawyers need to succeed at the highest level?

The most overlooked skill today is the discipline of staying close to the law. As the role of in-house counsel expands into governance, compliance, strategy and board advisory, it becomes harder to protect the time needed for the technical foundations of the profession – reading case law, following doctrine, studying how courts reason. That is exactly where a GC’s authority comes from. Neglect it, and it fades.

I often tell my colleagues that our profession is closer to high-level sport than most lawyers admit. Athletes who aim for a championship train every day, without exception – not only before a game. It is the same for a General Counsel. You do not open a book only when a difficult case lands on your desk. You read and stay sharp continuously, so that when the moment comes, and it always comes, you already have the answer, or you know where to find it. Without that discipline, you simply cannot compete at the top.

This is also why I take a careful view of the current enthusiasm surrounding AI. AI is not the absolute solution. It is a powerful tool, but only in the hands of someone who already knows the subject in depth. Used by an experienced GC with a strong grounding in theory and case law, it accelerates research and sharpens analysis. Used by a lawyer without that foundation, it becomes a shortcut that hides the gaps and produces confident-sounding answers with no substance behind them.

For younger in-house lawyers, this is a real risk, and our profession is not talking about it enough.

The other mindset that is heavily underestimated is the willingness to take clear positions. Too many in-house lawyers hide behind balanced presentations of “options” and push the responsibility back to the business. That is not what shareholders and executives need. They need a GC who studies the matter, forms a view, states it, and takes full responsibility for the wording and full accountability for the outcome. Anyone can list possibilities. Very few are willing to say, in writing, what the right answer is and stand behind it. That, more than anything else, is what makes a lawyer count within a company.