About

Iryna Telychko’s educational and professional background, which is atypical for a Middle East-based general counsel, stems from the Ukraine where she trained as a lawyer, clerked in the judiciary and worked as an associate in one of the then most recognised Ukrainian law firms, where she was mainly involved in dispute handling on large international cases. She demonstrated her entrepreneurial instincts upon moving to the Middle East by opening her own law firm before joining Etihad Rail DB in 2015 and Etihad Rail in February 2018. Having made a major impact on the way legal matters are handled since joining, Telychko provides the following description of her in-house legal innovation: ‘When I joined Etihad Rail in February 2018, the legal function was mostly outsourced to external service providers. I therefore had to build an internal legal function and an in-house legal team, which I managed to do with the great support of Etihad Rail’s leadership. The key principles, which guide my team’s work are to focus on the internal client’s requirements and governance while maintaining an awareness of commercial consequences of legal decisions and a focus on team work and collaboration among lawyers with complementary skills. As a result, the legal function has become an important contributor to the company’s business and management decisions and is no longer viewed as a “nay-saying” theoretical function detached from the realities of the company’s business’. In terms of where she predicts the in-house legal market in the Middle East will go next, Telychko sees a bright future. ‘As the economy and business culture of the Middle East becomes increasingly sophisticated, more and more companies will understand and value the contributions of a well-organised and sufficiently empowered legal function. In turn, the legal function will no longer be working in a vacuum but will be very much integrated at the heart of business decisions’, she says.