Team size: Sole legal counsel

What are the most significant cases, projects and/or transactions that you and/or your legal team have recently been involved in?

Owing to the commercially sensitive and confidential nature of these matters, only a general overview can be provided.

Over the past year, the legal department has been engaged in a number of still ongoing transactions, projects and other significant matters that are critical to the Company’s strategic and operational objectives.

The work encompassed various topics like strategic transactions and partnerships, project development, regulatory and compliance, dispute and risk management.

My role was in ensuring that business initiatives are executed within a sound legal and ethical framework, maintaining compliance and protecting the Company’s long-term interests in a complex and evolving energy landscape.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience? 

I believe that the general counsel’s role during crises is extremely important in ensuring that legal advice is incorporated in the business strategy in order to effectively go through challenges brought by such periods of instability, balancing immediate risk containment with long-term strategic stability.

As a general counsel you need to stay informed, identify and anticipate risks; educate employees, collaborate with management, advise strategically and promote a compliance culture; understand business and support decisions; implement a crisis management plan; and finally learning and improving for future disruptions.

All those actions will contribute to the resilience and long-term success of the company.

What strategies do you employ to ensure the successful digital transformation of a legal department while maintaining compliance with your country’s data protection laws?

Ensuring a successful digital transformation of a legal department while maintaining compliance with data protection laws requires a careful balance between innovation, risk management and legal compliance.

I believe that successful digital transformation in a legal department is less about adopting the latest technology and more about embedding compliance, data protection and governance into every step of the process. By combining strategic planning, careful vendor selection, staff training and ongoing oversight, the transformation of the department should take place while staying firmly within the bounds of the law.

Given the current geopolitical shifts and growing uncertainties around international free trade, has your company’s risk profile evolved, and are you taking measures to address these challenges?

Yes, our company’s risk profile has evolved in light of current geopolitical shifts and the growing uncertainty surrounding international trade. We’ve seen increased exposure in areas such as supply chain reliability, sanctions compliance, and regulatory divergence between key markets.

We are closely monitoring developments in trade policy, sanctions regimes and cross-border regulatory changes while reviewing contractual protections and maintaining open communication with internal regulators to remain proactive, compliant, and strategically adaptable.