About

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

Koçtaş is a home improvement retailer, supplying tools, construction products, and services. As the legal counsel of a retailer I am dealing with customers, suppliers which is over 1,000, service providers, administrative bodies and other third parties. I really enjoy to be in touch with everyone in the business such as assisting a store employee and the CEO in the same day. Beside my general counsel title I have compliance officer, NGO relations officer and IP officer role as well. During the last two years I have been involved with a Koçtaş data protection law project which was a huge work when you consider our number of employees and customers. According to the law requirement we revised all business activities related with personal data “processing”. We have revised and updated our major policies as well. As a joint venture company our success comes from vision of both Koç Holding and Kingfisher. Part of my role is to connect the shareholders and achieve to harmonise the requirements of them. We moved our vendor buying agreements (VBA) to SAP which was an opportunity to revise the VBA. We achieve to deliver economic value to the business with our lead to risk mitigation and litigation success.

What have been the major external trends that have impacted your team’s work over the past two years (market developments, changing regulatory environment, political events etc.)?

The traditional retail is far behind the customer needs and a transformation is needed to be more flexible and competitive. Beside the offline sales our company also focused on online sales. We, as legal team revised every step of the online sales including after sales services not to only comply with the law but also care the costumer needs. Before the legal requirement Koçtaş lead to sell the nylon bags to reduce the usage of them with the aim to prevent environmental pollution and we as legal were a part of that team. In recent years the currency instability and fragile economy caused changes at the regulations very often. We tried to adopt our company to this changes as soon as possible and try to seek the commercial opportunities of the regulations. I believe in the power of NGO’s and I am a part of legal counsel network of the federation of retail (TAMPF). We achieve to discuss the retails problems with bureaucrats and shared our detailed views about the sector.

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

Koçtaş believes in the opportunities regarding online sales as a part of omni-channel. The online sales growth is 180 % in 2019 and we are expecting additional 60% growth in 2020. We will work closely with the web sales team and be a strategic partner. By the end of November 2019, Koçtaş has 39 Koçtaş stores and 50 Koçtaş Fix stores. Koçtaş Fix is the small format of our stores which enables us to expand more places and reach more customers. In 2020 we are planning to open more Koçtaş Fix stores and as legal we will assist and negotiate together with the property team and provide legal solutions.

What techniques do you use to provide commercially-focused and optimal business advice to your company? If so, how do you get these across to more junior lawyers in the team?

I am a member of Koçtaş’s investment board which gives me opportunity to be a part of the future plans. We add financial value to the business with litigation success and managing the risks. We are agile to give solutions. As the legal function our aim is to add value to our work. We work very closely and Koctas legal is a good example of team work in our company. We believe in quality as well, getting the job done cannot assure development. I courage my team to move out of their legal comfort zone and be more focused to business. We are building our strategy together which enable us to go forward together. I appreciate their intelligence and reliability. Trust is our motto.

Does the team use any “legal tech” products and do you find them a helpful management device?

We use legal tech especially related with Data Protection Law. Legal tech saves time of the legal team and prevents lawyers doing non legal work. In recent years in general counsels are leading more projects and in project management with legal tech becomes more important. Legal tech is used in external law firm management, too. We all need a process for managing relationship with key external law firms. With the development of the legal tech I believe it will become more accessible and affordable.

In what ways do you see the in-house legal role in evolving in your region over the next few years?

In-house lawyer position is a very important role in the company. In-house legal role is about adding value to the company however an in-house Lawyer can make not only  advice, lead negotiations, give trainings, deal with external lawyers but also focus on crisis management, ethical standards, improve commercial skills and influencing business. Our customers including inner customers are seeking high quality work and sustainable value. In-house lawyers must define their “stop” points such as doing paper works which don’t add any value to the legal team and also the business.