“The role of law is not to resist change, but to channel it in the right direction.”

An interview with Fatih Ozdemir, Legal and Regulatory Affairs Director at YASED International Investors Association in Turkiye.

What are the biggest external forces or trends currently shaping your role as General Counsel, and how are you responding to them?

We are living through a period where technology, sustainability, and law are converging in unprecedented ways. Artificial intelligence, data governance, and the global shift towards a green and digital economy are redefining the expectations placed on legal professionals.

For me, this transformation is not just regulatory, it’s structural. The boundaries between public policy, corporate governance, and technological capability are blurring. My role at YASED involves helping international investors navigate this complexity by fostering a regulatory environment that supports both innovation and predictability. I believe legal certainty is not static compliance; it is the foundation on which trust, investment, and long-term competitiveness are built.

How are you balancing the increasing demands of legal risk management with the expectation to drive business value and strategic insight?

I approach risk management as a strategic discipline rather than a defensive exercise. Legal functions today are expected to anticipate rather than react to bring perspective, not just paperwork.

When designing compliance frameworks around areas such as AI governance, KVKK, GDPR, or sustainability, my goal is to ensure that they do more than prevent violations. A sound compliance culture should strengthen institutional credibility, clarify decision-making, and enhance operational agility. In that sense, law becomes an enabler of growth. My approach is to embed legal thinking into the organisation’s strategic DNA so that compliance and competitiveness evolve together, not apart.

What’s one lesson or insight from your in-house journey that you wish you’d known earlier and would share with a fellow GC today?

Early in my career, I focused almost entirely on technical precision crafting flawless arguments, perfect clauses, and comprehensive analyses. Over time, I learned that real influence in law comes from timing, context, and communication.

Understanding how business decisions are made, how policies are shaped, and how technology transforms expectations is what gives legal advice its true value. To any fellow GC, I would say this: cultivate vision as much as expertise. Read beyond legislation, engage with emerging technologies, and think systemically. The lawyers who will define the next decade are those who can translate complexity into clarity and turn regulation into direction.