Interview with Enis Arkat — Senior Legal Counsel at N26

N26 has one of the largest and most dynamic in-house legal teams in Berlin with topics ranging from banking law, IT law and data protection, just to name a few.

Many young legal professionals on the market have properly seen our compelling advertising and heard about the fin-tech unicorn that is N26, but what is it really like to work at German’s biggest challenger bank?

We sat down with Enis Arkat, one of the longest serving members of our legal team to speak with him about the transformation of N26, his interesting journey back to us and how N26 has prepared him for his most impressive next step…

Tell us more about your journey with N26. You rejoined the team again last year, correct? What made you return to the company?

My journey at N26 actually began as an intern in May 2016. I had to bridge some time between the written and the oral first exam, and two of my friends from high school happened to work at N26 at the time (back then NUMBER26). They called me up and told me that the General Counsel was looking for an intern and asked me if I was interested in joining the team.

I had interned at big law firms before, so the interviews with the people at N26 really blew my mind. I was not familiar with startup companies and culture at all, so the way they described their work and the questions they asked me were really interesting. After the two month internship during which we raised our Series B round and obtained the banking license, I agreed right away to spend the waiting period before the Referendariat as a Legal Advisor at N26.

The next 18 months I spent working at a company that grew from 100 to more than 300 people when I left to continue my Referendariat. After a few weeks, I was given my own projects and had a lot of autonomy for a guy on his first job. The trust the leadership placed in their young employees was really motivating me and a lot of other “youngsters” who worked with me at the time (most of them have become founders by now).

Having worked at the Federal Ministry of Finance and two big law firms during my Referendariat, the choice to return to N26 right after my 2nd exam was mainly for two reasons: For one, I had never been as happy as I was working with so many young, brilliant people around me as at N26. It does change the atmosphere of a workplace a lot when the age average is around 30 instead of 50. Also, I knew from my time as a Legal Advisor that one has a lot of responsibility early on in the N26 legal team and can work on legally complex and challenging matters. Also, I strongly believe that lawyers will have to work more and more product-oriented in the future, instead of just acting as advisors standing on the sidelines. It is therefore really important to understand the mechanics of a product development process and the work of a tech company.

What are the benefits for a young legal professional to join N26 as an advisor compared to traditional law firms?

I think there are mainly two things that are really different about working here: The team and the style of work.

Working in a law firm as a “Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter” seems attractive to a lot of graduates, as it comes with good pay and puts a reputational firm on your CV. On the other hand, these firms often have a very hierarchical structure, a high age average and — in particular the larger firms — often lack a real team and firm culture. At N26, you work with a lot of inspiring people your age who all work towards building a revolutionary banking product. This also leads to an amazing team spirit, including countless social events, lunches and other opportunities to meet people outside the legal field. In a law firm, you will most likely work only with lawyers. At N26, the lawyers are only a small part of a much larger team with all kinds of backgrounds. Lastly, the people working at N26 come from all over the world, which leads to true diversity and interesting personal encounters.

The other difference is the style of work. At law firms, you will mostly assist an associate in their daily work and will never face a client. When working in-house at a tech company like N26, after a few weeks you will communicate directly with stakeholders from other teams and mostly work independently. This comes with great responsibility and learnings, since we do not always have the capacity to review your work. For me, this was incredibly motivating when I first started working here. Also, we do not have traditional offices like most law firms do, but everyone from General Counsel to Legal Advisor is seated in one large room next to each other. This creates a more open atmosphere and makes communication and feedback much easier. What is also important is that you will be exposed to different areas of law instead of just one particular field. Since we are the first point of contact for all legal matters, we work on matters of corporate law, banking law, data protection, employment law as well as competition and commercial law.

What was the most inspiring project you’ve led or been a part of at N26 so far?

Since I rejoined the company, I have been involved in multiple projects to enhance the way we onboard and identify customers. N26 has always been a pioneer when it comes to user experience, and we are pushing hard to establish safer and more user friendly identification methods on the German market, which we already use in most other European countries. This project does not only require thorough legal assessments, but also a lot of communication with the regulator (BaFin and Bundesfinanzministerium) as well as potential partner companies.

What are your next plans? We hear you are going to Harvard next year?!

Yes I am, I can still hardly believe it myself (laughs). But my admission to Harvard’s LL.M. program proved to me that you can get into top-tier institutions without following the classic German lawyer pattern of 1st exam — doctorate — 2nd exam — big law firm. I even believe that my early focus on entrepreneurship and innovation helped me stand out from the crowd of German PhD students applying with me to the same law schools. And I do believe that the experience and the network I will have built at N26 will be a very useful tool for my legal career after my return to Germany.

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