Team size: 15

Has your team been impacted by any political, economic or regulatory changes?

All legal teams globally have been impacted by the Covid pandemic and this has been an exceptional circumstance that has a lot of not only political dimensions, but also regulatory and economic implications too. I am the deputy head of the contract monitoring unit team and monitor all big contracts of privatisation of assets of Greece to private investors. From March 2020, there has been an emanation of reasons for non-performance of contractual obligations. This has impacted the way we manage the contracts and relations with private investors. The notion of force majeure and its invocation has been evaluated many times with the legal counsel of state, which the courts have opined with. Regulatory changes within the domestic legal order of Greece have also impacted us in terms of when we privatise, when we mature an asset and more. Our legal department is intent on following legislation and must adapt also.

And looking forward, what technological advancements Do you think in house legal teams will benefit from the most?

Technological advancements are always a valuable tool to assist big firms and group of companies with a stable, solid legal department. It is my assumption that a lot of things can be automated like for instance, how legal documents are produced. Artificial intelligence has impacted a lot of working places here. There are about six operational lawyers and some external counsel working in our department, and I must admit that the technological transformation to our legal department is not largescale. Nevertheless, we do use technology to organise our electronic files concerning upcoming or ongoing judicial hearings, court appearance, and arbitrations with private investors.

How do you suggest in-house legal teams build relationships with business partners?

This is very important for us, being the privatisation funnel, and the agency that looks after and monitors how investments are being developmentally implemented. We are very involved in the post-sale section of financially closed deals to take care of the business parameters. On behalf of the investor, we are encouraged from our administration, to have a business-oriented approach. This doesn’t apply to only when we carry out a tender, but also when we assist the private investor to implement his investment plan throughout the bureaucracy of the Greek state, or even with the financing system that he has with the lenders and more. Therefore, building effective relationships with private parties show that we are a crucial partner in the business making decision. So, lawyers should adopt a business-oriented attitude to assist with the many roles they hold in an organisation.