About

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

– Çalık Holding and GE Digital entered into Strategic Partnership Agreement to establish a new digitally-focused practice within the Turkish conglomerate, aimed at supporting digital transformation in the country and around the world. Çalık Digital, a fully owned subsidiary of Çalık Holding is established for this purpose, which will enable digital transformation within Çalık Group, as well as provide Digital solutions to Industrial customers based on IoT, Data Science and Cloud Services. Çalık Digital aims to accelerate digital transformation of construction, energy, mining, healthcare and marine sectors within Turkey and beyond.

– TAP Project: Çalık Enerji, has reached an important milestone in terms of transmitting the electric energy generated in Turkmenistan to neighboring countries.  A memorandum of understanding between Ministry of Energy of Turkmenistan and Çalık Holding has been signed on 31.01.2018 in Ashkhabad, in order to realise the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) electricity transmission line project which is added to the agenda in this regard and planned to be parallel with the TAPI Gas Pipeline Project. Signing this memorandum will accelerate the processes of financial, technical, commercial and legal works for the project, intergovernmental agreements, negotiations to be made by Çalık Holding with these 3 states and the following commercial agreements.

Gediktepe Project: Gediktepe deposit located in Bigadiç, Balıkesir was discovered in 2013 by Lidya team under a joint venture, Polimetal Madencilik, with 50/50 Lidya/Alacer shareholding. The project was developed by Lidya under a50/50 arrangement with Alacer Gold until partners signed a deal in July 2019 to consolidate the project 100% under Lidya in return for oxide and sulfide NSR payments. Following the completion of closing, Lidya plans to start the construction of the oxide plant to produce gold and silver while further studies continue on sulfide development. The deposit will be extracted by conventional open-pit mining method with 11 years life of mine. Oxide ore will be treated by heap leach to produce gold and silver doré and sulfide ore will be floated to produce copper and zinc concentrates separately.

What geographical area do you cover and what challenges have you faced when covering multiple jurisdictions and sectors?

Çalik Holding operates in the energy, construction and real estate, textile, mining, finance, and telecom sectors. It has operations in 22 countries across Central Asia, Balkans and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions and the Group employs nearly 25,000 people. Therefore, we have huge number of projects in the afore-mentioned sectors that are either completed or ongoing. The major challenges while covering multiple jurisdictions and sectors may be summarised as differentiation of legal systems, laws and regulations, managing outside counsel, dealing with change in law risk, lack of stability, bureaucracy and political factors.

What will be the main focus for the company in the next 12 months and how does the team intend to assist with this?

Our company’s vision is to grow four-fold on four continents by our 44th anniversary in 2025, adding value to every life we touch in each of our areas of operation with reliable teams empowered by our innovative, entrepreneurial spirit. Furthermore, our mission is to contribute to rising standards of living by using our talents and energy to develop solutions that add value to people’s lives in every region in which we operate.

I believe that our legal team has a primary role in our Company to accomplish its mission by providing comprehensive and proactive legal services, solving the problems efficiently by identifying legal risks and formulating alternatives to achieve our company’s’ business objectives.

Given Çalık’s recent venture into the technology space, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the in-house legal role in the future the most?

The new digital technologies brought by the Fourth Industrial Revolution will change the world so significantly and immediately that will also involve the lawyers and the nature and scope of work performed by the lawyers. As the Fourth Industrial Revolution shall seem to threat the existence of certain jobs, I believe that the lawyers will still exist but with new rules and regulations, new practice areas, usage of new digital technologies and artificial intelligence. But it goes without saying that the key success factor to survive in this transforming world for us as the lawyers shall be the ability to adapt to the changing standards and requirements.

How do you feel in-house legal leaders can successfully introduce and implement a business orientated culture within a legal department?

I believe this may be achieved by establishing cross-functional relationships between legal departments and business teams. Due to the evolving nature of legal counsel’s role, the lawyers should understand the work performed at the same level as the business team members. The lawyers in the legal department should work collaboratively with the business teams as they work towards common goals. All levels of lawyers should attend and participate in multidiscipline meetings and join key internal committees. Although, this sometimes entails lawyers out of their comfort zone, in order to provide the level of service a corporation or business unit requires, the legal counsel must be totally synchronised with business goals and activities of the company.

Given your previous experience in private practice, what do you feel are the pros and cons of working in-house compared to for a law firm?

In-house counsel are a member of business units like any other, they actively take  part in strategic decision making processes and are expected to establish strategic plans, ensure that they align with the broader corporate strategy, and adjust course as the business continues to evolve and grow. These are the most factors I like in acting as an In-House Counsel compared to law firm.