Burcu Sener Sozer is the Head of Legal at Aygaz, Turkey’s 7th largest industrial organization, which brings together the energy firms of the Koc Group outside the oil and refinery sector, and which has a subsidiary portfolio ranging from LPG trade to electricity and natural gas. Sener joined Aygaz in 2011, after 13 years in private practice at several top tier Turkish law firms. We spoke to her about her career.
For interviews with other Turkish Heads of Legal, make sure to check out the Market Spotlight on Turkey in the February 2015 issue of the CEE Legal Matters magazine.
CEELM:
Can you describe your career path leading up to your current role?
B.S.S.: I believe I was very fortunate to have learned English as a second language at high school, so I had the opportunity to work for great law firms from early on in my career. Since I started my compulsory internship in 1997 with Cakmak Avukatlik Burosu, which is affiliated with White & Case, I have worked mostly as an M&A attorney, involved in various aspects of Turkish law and practiced law both in Turkish and English. Upon completion of the internship, I started working for Herguner, Bilgen & Ozeke and worked with international contracts, joint ventures, and mergers & acquisitions, and I decided to explore corporate law more in depth and from a different perspective so I decided to get an LL.M. degree from a school in the US. I completed my LL.M. at the George Washington University Law School in 2001, and when I returned to Turkey, I began to work as a senior attorney with Taboglu & Demirhan – a boutique law firm mainly involved in corporate law, M&A, and privatizations, – where I enjoyed working on complex legal issues and sophisticated deals. Although the intense experience and complexity of M&A deals were always appealing, I opted to accept the in-house role at Aygaz in early 2011.
CEELM:
So you moved in-house after 13 years in private practice. Was your plan always to move in-house, or was there something specific about the opportunity to join Aygaz that drove your decision?
B.S.S.: Frankly, I had not thought about moving in-house until I had my daughter. I left Taboglu & Demirhan in early 2010 and took a sabbatical of almost a year to spend with her. When I returned to work, I started searching for a more balanced way of life, which led me to considering in-house positions. Being in-house is also a unique opportunity to be actually involved in the decision-making process, which I wanted to explore personally as well. The opportunity at Aygaz was quite fascinating, as the role provides exposure to very extensive areas of law: corporate law, LPG legislation, consumer law, dealership agreements, and complicated business transactions in both the LPG and natural gas sectors, to name a few. As the leading LPG distributor in Turkey, Aygaz is involved in all LPG processes, including production, procurement, storage, and filling, and that reflects in our day-to-day work. I am involved in all types of contracts, litigation, legal advice, and compliance aspects of all those processes and that is very exciting.
CEELM:
Do you miss any elements of private practice?
B.S.S.: Although I do not miss much of private practice, I have to admit that I sometimes miss the rush that comes with M&A deals. Especially if it was a new sector or a new area of law, the learning process in the limited time-frame was quite thrilling at times. Luckily, I am involved in M&A projects for Aygaz so I still have that zest in my work-life.
CEELM:
With Taboglu & Demirhan you did some energy work, but it doesn’t appear that your practice focused primarily on that area. What was it about your profile, you believe, that led Aygaz to hire you?
B.S.S.: Before I joined Aygaz, the role of the legal counsel in Aygaz was changing to require someone to assist the Management in potential M&A deals and complicated legal aspects of business life in Turkey. I believe my experience in M&A deals and my enthusiasm for re-structuring of the Legal Department in Aygaz were in line with the expectations of the Management.
CEELM:
How large is your legal team at Aygaz, and how is it structured? Do you tend to specialize your team members or try to rotate them to develop them as generalist professionals?
B.S.S.: We are a small team of 5 lawyers and 1 support staff in Aygaz’s Legal Department, supporting both Aygaz and its subsidiaries. Apart from one associate working solely on Competition Law, we all are involved in both litigation and consultancy, each one of us in different levels. We try to develop the team members as generalist professionals, although the work requires us to specialize in one field more than the other.
CEELM:
When you hire lawyers for your team, do you prefer them to come from similar in-house roles, or from a private practice background? Why?
B.S.S.: Actually it depends on the role we are hiring for. For example, when we are hiring for a consultancy role, I prefer to have a private practice background and exposure to various types of legal issues. That may not be the case if we were looking for a litigator, which requires extensive knowledge of Turkish LPG legislation.
CEELM:
What best practices have you developed over the years in terms of project management for your legal team? Do you use any specific software to keep track of ongoing assignments?
B.S.S.: We are still sharpening our skills and practices in the team. Last year, we started developing in-house software in collaboration with the IT team of Aygaz that will enable us to organize, record, and report on all the types of work we are doing in the Legal Department. We hope to be in a position to use all the modules by the end of this year.
CEELM:
When you outsource legal work, what are the main criteria you use in picking the firms you will be working with? Do you have a panel, or do you select your firms on a project-specific basis?
B.S.S.: In specific projects when we require assistance of outside counsel, we mainly select them on a project-specific basis, based on their experience, anticipated added-value, and overall proposals.
CEELM:
From a legislative stand-point, what are the recent or upcoming changes that will impact or have impacted your work the most?
B.S.S.: In recent years, the Turkish Code of Obligations and the Turkish Commercial Code have been widely amended, and we spent a great deal of time adapting to the requirements of the new Codes and related legislation, which have led us to assess and re-design a variety of aspects of our business. Particularly for Aygaz, we also had to comply with the requirements of the new Capital Markets Law and secondary legislation.
CEELM:
On the lighter side, what’s your favorite place in Istanbul, and why?
B.S.S.: My favorite place in Istanbul is Ortakoy by the Bosphorus. The small plaza is facing one of the greatest views of Bosphorus and a walk by the spectacular Buyuk Mecidiye Mosque and small shops and restaurants are always a delight and uplifting for me.
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