”The role of the General Counsel is not to eliminate risk entirely, but to define the organisation’s acceptable risk boundaries in a way that supports sustainable growth.”

An interview with Nihat Zincirlioglu, Head of Legal & Compliance at Samsung Electronics in Turkiye.

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

From the perspective of a large-scale consumer electronics manufacturer operating across multiple jurisdictions, the General Counsel role is increasingly shaped by regulatory fragmentation combined with global operational interdependence.

While products are designed, manufactured, and distributed through highly integrated global supply chains, legal and regulatory expectations are becoming more localised, stricter, and less predictable.

Key external forces include technology-driven regulation, such as data protection, cybersecurity, AI governance, product safety, and sustainability requirements, alongside trade controls, customs enforcement, and geopolitical volatility. For a manufacturing-led organisation, regulatory risk does not remain abstract; it directly affects production continuity, sourcing strategies, customs clearance, and market access. In addition, public and regulatory scrutiny around RBA, labour law standards, ESG commitments and supply chain transparency has intensified significantly.

In response, I have focused on positioning the legal function as an operationally embedded risk function, closely aligned with manufacturing, procurement, logistics, and compliance teams. Rather than addressing legal issues only at the point of escalation, we work to identify regulatory pressure points upstream – during product planning, supplier onboarding, and process design. This approach allows the organisation to manage legal risk proactively while preserving operational efficiency and global consistency.

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

In a fast-moving manufacturing and technology environment, the balance between legal risk management and business enablement is particularly delicate. The business expects speed, scalability, and predictability, while the legal landscape often introduces uncertainty and friction. The role of the General Counsel, therefore, is not to eliminate risk entirely, but to define the organisation’s acceptable risk boundaries in a way that supports sustainable growth.

This balance is achieved primarily through risk differentiation and decision framing. Certain risks – such as product compliance, data security, or export controls – are inherently non-negotiable and require strict controls. Others, particularly in commercial structuring or operational processes, may allow for informed flexibility. By clearly articulating these distinctions, legal advice becomes a decision-support tool rather than a limiting factor.

Equally important is translating legal risk into business-relevant language. Senior management does not require exhaustive legal analysis; they require clarity on impact – production delays, financial exposure, reputational consequences, and long-term strategic implications. When legal input is delivered in this form, it directly contributes to strategic insight and reinforces the legal function’s role as a value-creating partner within the organisation.

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

One insight I wish I had fully appreciated earlier is that, in a complex manufacturing organisation, the effectiveness of a General Counsel is measured less by legal precision and more by practical judgment under pressure. In-house legal leadership often operates at the intersection of regulatory expectations and operational realities, where theoretical legal solutions are not always implementable at scale.

Over time, I learned that influence as a General Counsel is built through consistency, commercial understanding, and credibility with operational teams. Legal advice that ignores production realities, supply chain constraints, or global timelines may be technically sound but ultimately ineffective. Conversely, advice that acknowledges these realities while safeguarding core legal principles earns trust and long-term impact.

If I were to share one lesson with a fellow GC today, it would be this: develop a deep understanding of how the business actually runs, not how it appears on paper. In large, technology-driven manufacturing environments, the most respected General Counsels are those who can align legal integrity with operational pragmatism – and guide the organisation through uncertainty without losing strategic direction. It is important to be able to provide quick and realistic responses to the practical needs of the business.