Head of Legal - Turkey

My client is an American multinational food manufacturing company headquartered in United States. 

Responsibilities:

• Focusing on legal support for Sales team in customer negotiations and contracts including supply agreements with the distributors and retailers, service level agreements in MENAT.
• Working with the AMEA legal team, Business Unit Managers, and external consultants to provide the most robust legal protection in commercial, competition & antitrust areas across MENAT.
• Manage corporate governance and compliance for Turkey with support from our external service providers, including establishment and liquidation of legal entities, conducting annual and extraordinary board meetings, issuing power of attorney and similar. 
• Providing advice to local teams on labour matters in Tukey with support of MENAT Legal and HR teams.
• Representing the company during regulatory audits and challenges of Food Authorities and dealing with the results of the audits including drafting appeals andor corrective action plan to minimize company risks across MENAT.
• Instruct and manage external legal counsels when needed in several countries across MENAT.
• Focusing on aspects of Food law in compliance with regulation and engaging with our Regulatory and Development team.
• Reviewing and approving MENAT advertising including social media, Point of sale materials, Packaging, and press releases. Proactively providing legally compliant solutions where appropriate and doing legal research as needed.
• Providing proactive solution focused legal advice tailored to the needs of the business with a balanced approach of commercial and compliance focus.
• Monitoring and interpreting the legislative environment in which the company operates.
• Proactively identifying legal risk and providing commercially sound legal solutions.
• Working collaboratively with colleagues across multiple functions in a global organisation.
• Leading Local Incident Management Team together with Supply Chain, Communications and Sales in case of potential or actual food regulatory and safety issues.
• Be a key member of Turkey Leadership Team to develop High Performing Team across the region. 
• Play a key role in the company Legal Team, as a keen team player, and importantly a strong commercial partner to the broader MENAT business, contributing to the growth and constant evolution of the Global Legal and Compliance Department. 

Requirements:

• A qualified commercial/business lawyer with at least 10 years post qualification experience in a reputable law firm or within industry.
• Strong academic background.
• Technical excellence in your understanding and communication of the law.
• Experience in commercial contracts and competition law.
• Experience in corporate and labour law.
• Experience in consumer law and food law. 
• Experience in privacy law.
• Commercial acumen and strong relationship development skills.
• The ability to communicate with many different levels of the business and influence key stakeholders.
• The ability to work cross functionally and across all levels.
• Experience of working in a fast-paced demanding legal environment.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills (including drafting and negotiating) and organisational skills.
• Self-motivated and driven to develop legal capabilities and understand the company business.
• Experience of advising food manufacturers, distributors, or retailers
• Experience of advising big brands.  
• Experience with Legal support and regulatory advice relevant to the Sales function, relating to vertical agreements, unfair trade practices, territorial sales restrictions, pricing, customer and consumer complaints.  
• Secondment to industry if currently in private practice.  
• Experience of dealing with senior directors.