About

Türkmen Holding is a group of diversified companies covering textiles, logistics, foreign trade, technology, aviation, marine and yachting. As part of a drive to focus on growing in-house resource, general counsel Nihan Seda Kişi has built her team to significantly reduce the company’s reliance on external counsel. According to Kişi the development of the in-house team ‘has brought an integrity-based approach and a complete coordination with the other departments’. Being fully focused on achieving amicable solutions rather than partaking in lengthy legal proceedings, the team’s approach ensures that pending proceedings against the 15 group of companies are low. In addition the team has responded quickly to the latest developments in arbitration, giving priority to arbitration clauses in agreements in order to provide efficient dispute resolution services for the group members. Much more than a defence mechanism against proceedings, team members act as active business partners to Türkmen Holding, being part of the executive team, working very closely with the CEO and acting as members of the boards of the dynamic group. Describing the team’s contribution, Nihan says ‘our group policy is based on a very transparent approach coordinated with the legal aspect. Therefore, we constitute an integral part of our business. On the top of that, we play our part during making strategic decisions’. One feature of their work has been enlarging the registrations of designs and copyrights, storing them all in a system where the relevant departments can monitor them properly. Most recently the legal team was quick to create a data management policy in light of recent changes in Turkish legislation.