The Legal 500 UK Awards 2016 Won by Lightsource bp's Dr. Gürsoy

Dr. Gürsoy has won The Legal 500 UK Awards in 2016.

Lightsource is pleased to announce that Dr Ece Gürsoy, Chief Legal Officer, director and company secretary at Lightsource is the winner of The Legal 500 UK in-house individual of the year: Environment category for 2016.

Dr Gürsoy was appointed Chief Legal Officer at Lightsource in 2011. She previously worked on project finance, infrastructure, energy and privatisation projects in various sectors at Dentons LLP in London and at White & Case LLP in Istanbul.

At Lightsource, Dr Gürsoy currently heads up an in-house team of 15 highly qualified lawyers, working hand-in-hand with departments across the whole business from initiation of a project to completion and delivery. The company is also one of the UK companies accredited by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to offer training contracts to trainee solicitors.

Under Dr Gürsoy’s leadership the team has helped Lightsource to grow the solar sector from cottage industry to a utility-scale industry in the UK. She has overseen landmark projects including the reorganisation of the company and management buy-out, development of the world’s first deep-water floating solar array at the QE2 reservoir, completion of a 25-year corporate PPA with Belfast International Airport and the largest sterling-denominated bond in the solar industry globally.

Nick Boyle, CEO at Lightsource, said: “I am proud of the achievements of our in-house legal team. As a leading generator of solar energy in the UK and Europe we rely heavily on legal expertise when developing new projects. The role of our in-house legal team is instrumental to the success of our business and I am delighted to have the support of an outstanding team, led by Ece.”

Dr Ece Gürsoy, said: “I am delighted and honoured to have received The Legal 500 award. The solar sector has come a long in a very short space of time and we are very proud to have been involved in creating a set of bankable legal structures and documentation to support this phenomenal growth. The role of modern in-house lawyers is set to change the legal profession and the way the legal sector works. In-house lawyers are not just lawyers, they interplay across law, regulation, analysing business problems and providing workable legal structures for the business.”

The Legal 500 UK Awards 2016 recognises and rewards the best in-house and private practice teams and individuals over the past 12 months. It is handed to the most prominent legal practitioners, based on the most comprehensive research into the UK legal market, which involves over 70,000 interviews being conducted to ascertain the winners.