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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.

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.

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.

On September 22, 2020, CEE Legal Matters reported that DLK Legal in Poland and Kinstellar in Hungary and the Czech Republic, working together with Osborne Clarke as lead counsel, had advised Infosys on its EUR 30 million acquisition of GuideVision. CEEIHM spoke with Inderpreet Sawhney, Group General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Infosys, to learn more about the deal.

The Stakelogic Group has promoted Romanian lawyer Sorana Paduraru to Head of Legal in the Netherlands.

AbbVie has promoted Romanian lawyer Alex Potlog in the role of Legal Director for the UK and Ireland.

Zentiva has hired Pawel Borowski in the role of Head of General Legal in Prague from Takeda.

The Stada Group has hired Timur Khasanov – Batirov in the role of Head of Compliance for Russia and the CIS Region.

In 2019, the In-house Counsel’s Section of the Budapest Bar Association was established to create a knowledge exchange platform for in-house lawyers. Tunde Hegyi, Corporate Senior Counsel at the MOL Group, who is also President of the In-house Counsel’s Section of the Budapest Bar Association, describes the initiative. 

In July, CEE Legal Matters reported that Vasile Tiple, the first in-house counsel and former General Counsel of UiPath, had left that role to become the company’s Head of Legal Automation. Tiple reports on the recent launch of the sArb - Simplified Arbitration Reference Facility software robot that was developed by UiPath for the Bucharest International Arbitration Court.

The “Financial Shield” programs are a part of the Polish Government-established “Anti-Crisis Shield” aid program, implemented by the Polish Development Fund. The programs, worth PLN 100 billion, aim to protect the labor market and to ensure companies’ financial liquidity in periods of severe economic disruption. Joanna Dynysiuk, Head of Legal, Anna Wawrzynczak, Office Director – Legal Office – Corporate, and Anna Blonska, Office Director – Legal Office – Investments, describe the programs and the legal work behind it.

Elena Gabdulkhaeva, Legal & Corporate Policy Director at Uniper Russia, reflects on the potential risks of combining the legal function with those of compliance and regulatory affairs.

The role of Internal investigations in an effective compliance program remains critical despite the significant impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and resulting work-from-home set-ups. Altug Ozgun, Ethics & Compliance Director, explains how he runs them for Astellas Pharma.

Adriana Minovic, Group Head of Data Privacy and DPO at the Betsson Group, talks about the tension between the demands of different regulatory bodies from a use-of-data perspective.

John Giannakakis, General Counsel of the Andromeda Group, shares his insights on data protection and cybersecurity compliance issues – made all the more pressing in a COVID-19 context – and the best practices he has developed for assessing risks and nurturing a compliance culture.

Przemyslaw Witas, General Counsel at CEDC International, is directly involved in keeping a production line running during the COVID-19 Crisis.

Mark Erdelyi, Legal Director of Telenor Hungary, reports on the wide range of hurdles he and his team have had to overcome since the COVID-19 outbreak.

Marianna Erdei, Country Legal Director at EY Hungary, shares the unique challenges of managing the legal matters of a professional services company – with a legal services arm.

The MET Group is targeting EUR 1 billion in M&A deals over the next few years. Dora Szebeni, Group Head of Legal M&A, explains what it means to oversee a series of high-value transactions.

Proper vetting of business partners from a trade sanctions perspective is critical for companies selling to or procuring goods or services from Turkey, Russia, and China, according to Catalin Olarescu, Group Head of Sanctions at LafargeHolcim. He describes his approach to ensuring trade sanctions compliance.

Crenguta Catanea, Head of Legal at Romprest, draws from her in-house and consultancy experience to emphasize how important it is for GCs to train themselves to be taxation/fiscal-literate – and how they should develop that capability.