About

What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years?

The Victoria Group restructuring; UŠĆE Tower 2 project finance; K2 project finance; VINCI Belgrade Airport concession finance.

What changes have you made to the workings of the legal department during your time in your current role?

Involvement in the work of various associations that are shaping the regulatory environment. In order to deal with an evolving business environment, new kinds of competencies are required and expected from general counsel. One of them is the ability to influence changes of the legal framework. Being strongly involved in the work of various associations shaping the regulatory environment means having the power to directly steer the everyday business of the company.

Corporate governance process enhancement: modern technologies as well as changes in legislation are opening up new ways to do business including new approaches to external and internal clients. This gave me an opportunity to work on enhancement of processes related to corporate governance activities and to introduce a new way of conducting management meetings in the Bank which will facilitate the board sessions as well as signing and keeping key documents.

Strong collaboration with external lawyers: the goal of every general counsel is to create an expert team with people of different seniority and experience in various regulatory areas. Nevertheless, it is of equal importance in doing business in an efficient way to have the ability to identify and establish strong collaboration with external lawyers.

How has that affected the wider company?

All these activities are dedicated to shaping strategy and achieving corporate objectives while anticipating the risks and guarding our corporate reputation.

What are the main legal and regulatory challenges companies in Serbia are facing at the moment, both in your sector and across the whole economy?

Increase of regulations and uncertainty in the law/by-laws interpretation by the regulator. Additionally, the discrepancy between court decisions on the same legal issues are breaking the confidence in the legal system.

If you had to give advice to an aspiring in-house lawyer or GC what would it be and why?

General counsel should have a high degree of legal knowledge, vast business experience which serves the company when defining corporate objectives and long term strategy.

What do you feel are the pros and cons of an in-house legal role compared to a private practice one?

In-house lawyers provide a service to their client and as such they share the same business objectives. This means that as part of the greater system the success of the in-house lawyers highly depends on the strategy and good management of the company. When it comes to practicing law, in-house lawyers have more extensive knowledge as they are expected to cover various regulatory topics. On the other side, the external lawyers are often specialised in particular legal fields.

Focus on… Development

A formula for a good in-house lawyer in the financial industry.

Working as an in-house lawyer in the financial industry one can face multiple challenges and each of them are making this position dynamic and consequently attractive. This statement is quite general and maybe overused but in essence is true.

The in-house lawyer is committed to serving one client. Although it sounds simple, providing services to one client brings more challenges than one might expect. Above all, it requires permanent empowerment of legal experts within the institution through continuous professional development. Increased changes in regulations, globalisation, extensive powers or regulators and new technologies are profiling new in-house lawyers.

The key to providing exceptional service is knowledge. Besides a high degree of legal knowledge, an in-house lawyer should have vast business experience which serves to the company when defining corporate objectives and long term strategy. This demand is shaping different positions within in-house legal teams, expectations and competencies required from in-house lawyers.
Unfortunately, this demanding mix in expertise combined with a strong business outlook and interest in new technologies is hard to achieve. This is why in-house and external lawyers often complement each other. The external lawyers do not know the organisation from inside, their opinion cannot be influenced by senior management and they are engaged because of the expertise in particular fields. These factors are the best guarantee that particular problem that you have is in good hands. On the other side an in-house lawyer is dealing with various set of questions which are requiring high understanding of the broader institutional context, as well what contributes to reaching company objectives.

A good financial industry in-house lawyer consists of various ingredients, such as the following: A fresh graduated student trainee, one bar exam, up to two years dealing with general legal matters in-house, a couple of years in litigation matters and as an external lawyer serving financial industry clients, no less than five years dealing with banking and financial markets regulation in an in-house legal team and at least one good mentor.

It is important to understand that this formula can be improved if “spiced up” with additional technical expertise and with good managerial skills, which are essential for higher positions. While technical expertise is the skill one learns through carrier, managerial skills are more complex to gain. They represent mixture of professional and personal talent given abilities.

It is obvious that cooking this mix will require some time so it is better to start with fresh ingredients. Add the ingredients and mix, gently stir. From time to time high heat to boil will be needed, but do not worry, as it is the part of the process. Once boiled, heat will be reduced and it should be left for couple of years to grow. If all ingredients are good and the formula is followed, exceptional financial services lawyers will be created. Be aware that it is a demanding and time demanding task, but with a very certain outcome.