Radu Cotarcea

On November 13, CEE In-House Matters reported that Berlin-based APX Axel Springer Porsche had appointed Serbian lawyer Sonja Radovic as its Head of Legal. We sat down with Radovic to learn more about her career path leading up to her current role.

Irina Kravtsova, General Counsel at Raben Ukraine, reflects on a challenging year and the changes it brought to her role.

Bozidar Ristic, General Counsel, Legal Division Manager at AIK Banka, talks to CEE In-House Matters about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected his work and how it temporarily slowed down a storm of litigation proceedings against the banks in Serbia – a storm due to return.

Zsuzsanna Lippai, Legal and Compliance Manager at Mercedes-Benz, explains how she had to adapt her negotiation style in a COVID-19 world.

Elena Iacob, Head of Legal and Compliance at Alliance Healthcare Romania, reports that GCs need to focus on soft skills and empathy in today’s world.

Artur Chrzanowski, Head of Legal at Eiffage Polska, shares his thoughts on the development of soft skills critical for a General Counsel.

Having worked in the banking sector during the global financial crisis that started in 2008, Iliana Byanova, Chief Legal, Risk and Compliance Officer at Sopharma Trading, talks about the similarities between the effects of that crisis on the Banking sector and those of the COVID-19 pandemic on the pharmaceutical sector.

Barbara Chocholowska, Country Head of Legal Poland at HB Reavis, talks about the challenges presented by the COVID-19 outbreak in terms of hiring and inducting new colleagues into the in-house legal team.

Following Natura &Co’s 2020 acquisition of Avon, Hande Karakulah, the former Executive Director, Legal for TMEA at Avon, became the General Counsel, Turkey Middle East Africa at Natura &Co, marking a considerable expansion of her role.

“There’s simply no way to make a business 100% risk-free,” argues Jan Klouda, Vice President Legal, Risk & Corporate Security at Vodafone Czech Republic, who talks to CEE In-House Matters about how to identify and manage risk within a company.

Maria Dardai, Compliance Officer at MSC Cruises, looks at the upcoming Directive on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law.

Mihaela Scarlatescu, Head of Legal and Compliance Director at Farmexim & Help Net, explains how she and her team dealt with an expansion wave that saw her pharmacy chain add a hundred licenses in one year.

Jakub Staskiewicz, Legal & Compliance Director, Company's Proxy, and DPO at Vision Express Polska, talks to CEE In-House Matters about his experience in revamping his company’s compliance system and lessons learned from the exercise.

When he was promoted this May to Regional Legal & Compliance Operations Europe, Middle East, Africa at Bayer, Krzysztof Mazurek told CEE Legal Matters that his key objectives in his new position would be ensuring efficient support for the business “using above-country expertise and working with HQ and local legal & compliance colleagues so that the global solutions and service delivery models fit local markets and business needs.

Lukasz Szymanski, General Counsel and Business Integrity Officer at Unilever Poland, Baltics & CEE, describes for CEE In-House Matters how a values-based approach leads to Business Integrity.

Everyone has gone through, or more likely, still is going through particularly difficult times. That includes us, in-house lawyers, who have a perhaps more intimate relationship with their employers than others do. Thankfully, according to the more professional part of the Internet, quite a few of us managed to become better versions of ourselves.