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Belfast · In-house counsel

In-House Counsel Recruiters in Belfast

Companies hire in Belfast when the lawyer must be able to act under the Solicitors (Northern Ireland) Order 1976. A London or Dublin profile does not clear that gate, and the notice clock starts only after it is cleared.

Discuss a mandate
›In house legal recruiters Belfast start from the Northern Ireland roll, then the notice date.

In house legal recruiters Belfast place counsel who hold a Law Society of Northern Ireland practising certificate, not an England-and-Wales roll. Sartori & Partners has closed 4 Belfast in-house searches since 2017, inside 400+ placements. The Society issued 3,174 practising certificates in 2024. NISRA counted 149 Belfast legal-aid firms in 2025/26 (24 September 2026). A US bank's Belfast hub hired a senior technology counsel in 12 weeks in 2026. General counsel recruiters Belfast use the same 11-week median to an accepted GC offer.

01 — The brief answer

In-house counsel search in Belfast is a licensing search first

In house legal recruiters Belfast are instructed by a general counsel or a chief executive who already knows the city has lawyers and still cannot fill the seat. Article 4 of the Solicitors (Northern Ireland) Order 1976 says a person is not qualified to act as a solicitor unless admitted, on the roll, and holding a practising certificate. An England-and-Wales practising certificate does not satisfy that article. A Dublin certificate does not either. The Dublin in-house search is a different roll and a different regulator.

Sartori & Partners has made 400+ placements since 2017 (230+ in-house), of which 52 were general counsel or chief legal officer. The firm-wide general counsel shortlist is 24 days. The median time from brief to accepted offer on those 52 searches is 11 weeks, inside a range of 8 to 16. Acceptance on corporate mandates is 96 percent. Placed in-house leaders are still in seat at 97 percent after 12 months and 91 percent after 24 months. The replacement term on a retained general counsel, chief legal officer, or chief compliance officer search is 12 months, and 6 months on other in-house searches.

Since 2017 we have closed 4 in-house searches in the city: 1 general-counsel-equivalent seat and 3 counsel seats. 1 of those counsel files had to be restarted.

The parent practice is in-house and general counsel recruiting. The city map sits on Belfast legal market coverage. Pay for the chief legal seat is on general counsel salary in the UK, 2026, and pay below that seat is on in-house counsel salary in the UK, 2026. A London first general counsel, on our 2026 bands, is £140,000 to £220,000 base. That band is a ceiling to test, not a Belfast offer.

02 — Employers and sectors

Who actually hires counsel in Belfast

Two labour markets share the postcode and do not share the job. One is in-house: a company puts a lawyer on its own payroll to advise that company. The other is legal-services delivery: a law firm puts lawyers and analysts in Belfast to serve clients of other offices. A general counsel who hires from the second pool is hiring people whose last matter was someone else's client.

A&O Shearman's Belfast careers page, accessed 7 October 2026, states over 800 legal and business employees and calls Belfast the firm's third-largest office after London and New York. Baker McKenzie said in December 2025 that its Belfast centre employed nearly 500 people. The Irish News reported on 9 February 2026 that the firm had proposed cutting dozens of Belfast roles after a review of business services. No published figure gives the headcount after that review, so nearly 500 remains the last firm number, dated December 2025. Fieldfisher's Belfast office was above 300 people on 22 July 2026, up from five in 2018, with more than 100 joiners since January 2026. Lewis Silkin's Belfast office was above 80 people on 4 August 2026, with eight partners, and employment law accounted for 41 percent of that office's staff.

Those offices are not the client on an in-house mandate. A partner approach to someone inside them is a law-firm move. A company approach to the same person is an exit into a single employer.

The in-house employers documented from 2026 postings and agency pages cluster in four places.

  • US financial operations. Citi has advertised Belfast seats inside its own legal department, including a May 2026 Enterprise vice president role in the Technology, Operations and Privacy team and a Markets Legal contract-management counsel supporting prime services, futures, clearing and FX. The posting describes Citi Belfast as one of the largest employers in Northern Ireland. Bank of America's reported Belfast plan, in the News Letter on 30 September 2026, is a workforce of up to 1,000 people, with about 350 hires in the first year. That article does not publish a counsel requisition.
  • Technology and insurance software. Kainos, headquartered in Belfast, has advertised a Principal AI and Data Counsel to own the group's global approach to AI and data law, and commercial counsel roles open to a solicitor or a barrister. Allstate Northern Ireland, established in 1998, is the group's European digital centre, with sites in Belfast and the North West, according to Belfast Chamber.
  • Public law, on a published scale. The Departmental Solicitor's Office sits at Lanyon Plaza in Belfast and advises Northern Ireland departments. It is the clearest local price list, because the grades are printed. Three trainee solicitor posts were offered at £24,454, starting 1 September 2026. The Departmental Solicitor recruitment booklet stated £146,469 to £163,267, plus an employer pension contribution of 34.2 percent.
  • The wider Invest NI client base, which is not a lawyer census. Invest NI's client indicators, published June 2026, count 32,918 jobs in financial, professional and business services among businesses the agency supports. The same release counts 43,173 jobs in advanced engineering and manufacturing. The release says the figures cover Invest NI clients only, after a sample increase of about 40 percent, and are not the whole Northern Ireland economy. Use them as a map of where payrolls sit, not as a count of open legal seats.

The profession those employers draw from is small relative to London and concentrated in this city. The Law Society of Northern Ireland's annual report for 2024–2025 records 3,174 practising certificates issued in 2024. The roll held 6,454 solicitors on 31 December 2024, of whom 219 were admitted that year. The February 2025 ceremony admitted 155. In September 2025, 169 trainee solicitors started, the highest intake since the Institute of Professional Legal Studies opened in 1977. Legal Futures, on 29 July 2026, put the practising profession at around 3,000, the vast majority based in Belfast. Neither figure is a Belfast-only headcount. The Law Society does not publish a city split.

NISRA's legal-aid bulletin of 24 September 2026 is a different cut. In 2025/26, 422 solicitor firms and 633 barristers were on the legal-aid management system: 119 senior counsel and 514 junior counsel. Belfast had 149 of the firms, 35 percent of the Northern Ireland total, 42.3 firms per 100,000 population, against a Northern Ireland average of 21.9. That is legal-aid supply, not in-house supply. Invest NI's sector page, citing the 2021 Business Register and Employment Survey, says almost 20,000 people work in professional and legal services and describes almost 450 local law firms, 3,000 solicitors and 600 barristers and KCs. The 422 legal-aid firms and the almost 450 firms are different counts. Neither is an in-house census.

General counsel recruiters Belfast should separate three benches: corporate counsel already inside a company or a public grade, a solicitor in a Belfast firm who has never advised a single employer, and a delivery-centre analyst whose work is process. The third bench is the wrong one for a seat that will sign, opine, or appear.

Hiring in Belfast?

Brief the seat before the first call.

Admission, reporting line and notice go in the letter. The fee is retained, 25 to 30 percent of first-year total compensation.

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03 — Compensation

The pay figures a Belfast offer can actually cite

There is no official 2026 table of private-sector Belfast general counsel or legal counsel pay by year of qualification. Recruiter salary guides that print one are not a source for an offer letter. The figures below are the ones a board can open.

Seat Cash What the figure is
DSO trainee solicitor £24,454 Three posts, start 1 September 2026, Lanyon Plaza
Grade 7, Principal Legal Officer £61,673 to £64,469 NICS scale, 1 August 2025 to 31 March 2026
Grade 6 £73,577 to £77,904 Same NICS scale
Grade 5, Assistant Secretary £88,268 to £97,070 Same NICS scale, minimum to maximum
Departmental Solicitor £146,469 to £163,267 Candidate booklet, plus 34.2 percent employer pension
London first general counsel £140,000 to £220,000 base Sartori 2026 band, a different city

The NICS rows come from the NIPSA members' guide covering 1 August 2025 to 31 March 2026. Between the printed ends, Grade 7 point 2 is £63,072 and Grade 6's middle point is £75,739. Those dates end 31 March 2026. A later consolidated award was not in the guide. Check the live civil-service circular before matching a public employee pound for pound.

The Departmental Solicitor range of £146,469 to £163,267 is the range in the Department of Finance candidate booklet. The same pounds are the minimum and maximum NIPSA prints for the Permanent Secretary scale over 1 August 2025 to 31 March 2026. The booklet calls the post Senior Civil Service. Beside the salary it states an employer pension contribution of 34.2 percent. 34.2 percent of the booklet minimum, £146,469, is £50,092 to the nearest pound, before any employee contribution. The benefits section of the same booklet states a 34.25 percent employer contribution to the main defined-benefit scheme. The £50,092 figure uses the 34.2 percent rate printed next to the salary. A private-sector base that copies £146,469 and ignores that pension contribution is not a match. The public seat can lose on title and still win on total cash-plus-pension.

Private-sector Belfast bases on our own files sit in a narrower story, and it is one file, not a band. The general-counsel-equivalent search closed at a base of £118,000. That is above the Grade 5 maximum of £97,070 and below both the Departmental Solicitor minimum of £146,469 and the bottom of the London first-general-counsel band at £140,000. It is not a market median. It is the accepted base on that one file. Bonus terms on the file stay off the record, because one bonus percent would be read as a scale.

General counsel salary in London and associate salary in London are the numbers a Belfast candidate can be shown by a firm or a company that will move them. General counsel salary in Ireland is the Dublin-roll comparison, for a lawyer who would be changing regulator as well as city. None of those pages is a Northern Ireland private-practice lockstep.

Our fee does not change by city. A retained search is 25 to 30 percent of the hire's total first-year compensation. The retainer is 30 percent of that fee, paid when the search is engaged, and kept if the client cancels. Interim and fractional counsel, when the permanent hire cannot start inside the notice period, is a separate day-rate engagement. Days billed on that engagement are credited against a later retained fee.

04 — Notice and licensing

The certificate, the January expiry, and the notice floor

Article 4 of the Solicitors (Northern Ireland) Order 1976 requires admission, the roll, and a practising certificate in force. An England-and-Wales certificate does not meet it. Article 11 says a practising certificate expires at the end of 5 January after it is issued. A certificate issued after 5 January and before 6 February bears the date 6 January. A start in the first week of January can fall between the old certificate and the new one. The offer should say who pays the fee and which practice year the certificate must cover. The certificate remains the solicitor's.

Article 20 covers a solicitor who, without a certificate in force, has wilfully practised "in any respect" as a solicitor in any action, suit, matter or transaction. The Lord Chief Justice may fine, suspend, or strike off. The fine cap still printed is £100. Article 19 bars an unqualified person from acting as a solicitor in court or tribunal proceedings. A contract seat stays inside Article 20, because the article names any matter or transaction, not only litigation.

The Law Society's 2024–2025 annual report said work was underway on new Solicitor Practice Regulations that would replace about 30 existing sets with one document. That describes the reporting year. It does not put a single code in force on 7 October 2026. Accounts rules already distinguish a solicitor in the whole-time service of a government department, a local authority, a bank, or a trade union from private practice, where the solicitor does not also practice privately. The distinction is about client money. It is not an exemption from Article 4.

Barristers are a second profession. NISRA's 24 September 2026 bulletin counted 633 barristers registered for legal aid, 119 of them senior counsel. The Bar of Northern Ireland is not the Law Society. Kainos has advertised commercial seats open to a solicitor or a barrister. A seat that will litigate in Northern Ireland courts needs the rights of audience the work requires. A contract seat can be held by a barrister, and the offer should not demand a solicitor's practising certificate the person cannot hold.

The Law Society of Ireland's snapshot at the end of 2025, published 8 June 2026, records Irish practising certificates with a Northern Ireland county address: 127 in Antrim, 23 in Derry, 19 in Down, 11 in Tyrone, 5 in Armagh and 3 in Fermanagh. That is 188 Irish certificates. They are not Law Society of Northern Ireland certificates. A Belfast resident holding only an Irish certificate is regulated in Dublin. Moving that person onto a Northern Ireland solicitor seat is a requalification.

Article 118 of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 sets the employer's minimum notice at one week under two years' service, one week for each year from two years up to under twelve, and twelve weeks at twelve years or more. An employee employed for one month or more must give at least one week. A shorter contractual notice is read up to that floor. Either party may waive notice or accept pay in lieu. The article is a floor. The search has to read the contract the candidate signed. If the business cannot wait out that notice, interim legal talent covers the gap and does not replace the admission check.

GOV.UK's dismissal guidance records the Great Britain move to a six-month qualifying period on 1 January 2027, and states that in Northern Ireland the qualifying period is still usually one year. Claims go to an industrial tribunal. Early conciliation runs through the Labour Relations Agency. Acas records that most Great Britain tribunal time limits moved to six months on 1 October 2026. That change does not amend the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996. Garden leave, where the contract provides it, is not created by Article 118.

05 — Timeline

What 11 weeks means after a Belfast notice clause

The firm clock, which is not a Belfast average, runs like this. General counsel and chief legal officer searches reach a shortlist in 24 days and an accepted offer in a median of 11 weeks, range 8 to 16, across 38 searches since 2017. Senior counsel searches reach a shortlist in 18 days and an accepted offer in a median of 8 weeks, across 87 searches. Interim counsel, counted in a separate 60+ engagements, has a median of 7 days from first call to start.

On the Belfast files the shortlist matched those clocks, and the offer did not always do so. The general-counsel-equivalent file reached a shortlist on day 24 and an accepted offer in week 11, in 2026. The three counsel files each reached a shortlist on day 18. One of them, a senior technology counsel for a US bank's Belfast operations hub, reached an accepted offer in week 12, in 2026. A second, a commercial counsel for a Belfast technology employer, reached an accepted offer in week 10, in 2025. The third, the first counsel for a mid-market manufacturer, reached an accepted offer only in week 19, in 2025.

Those 19 weeks include 7 after we had to reopen the file. The preferred candidate held an England-and-Wales certificate. The seat needed a Northern Ireland solicitor. The shortlist on day 18 had not made that difference obvious enough, because the CV used the word solicitor without naming the roll. That miss sits on us. A Belfast search that treats solicitor as one profession will spend the back half of the timetable requalifying, or it will lose the candidate.

Acceptance is not the start date. Article 118's longest minimum is 12 weeks, and only after 12 years' service. A contractual notice of three months, where the contract says so, runs past the 11-week median and the person is still not in the building. The US bank file's accepted offer in week 12 was the signature, not the first day. Budget the notice on top. If the contract allows pay in lieu, the cost is salary for the unworked period plus the retained fee, and the candidate's current employer has to agree.

Week 1 agrees the mandate, the reporting line, and whether the seat is solicitor, barrister, or either. The next fortnight maps people who already hold the right certificate. The firm shortlist is 18 days for a senior counsel seat and 24 days for a general counsel seat, unless the spec is still moving. Notice runs only after acceptance. A January start has to clear the 5 January certificate expiry before the person advises anyone. The general counsel search carries the officer-level clock when the Belfast seat reports to the chief executive. The Belfast brief is the counsel under that officer, or the first lawyer in a company that is not calling the job general counsel.

06 — Engagements

4 Belfast files, 1 of them restarted

The 4 files are anonymised.

  • US bank, Belfast operations hub, 2026. Senior technology counsel, reporting to a counsel outside Northern Ireland. The work was supplier contracts, outsourcing and privacy for the Belfast technology and operations teams. Shortlist on day 18. Accepted offer in week 12. The candidate already held a Northern Ireland practising certificate, which is why the file did not pick up the 7-week restart the manufacturer file did. The shortlist named who held a Northern Ireland certificate. We hired one of three.
  • Belfast technology employer, 2025. Commercial counsel at about 5 years' qualification, drafting customer and supplier contracts. Shortlist on day 18. Accepted offer in week 10. The specification allowed a solicitor or a barrister. 2 of the 3 shortlisted names were solicitors. The hire was a solicitor, because the general counsel wanted one roll for the whole team, not because a barrister was ineligible.
  • General-counsel-equivalent, regulated infrastructure, 2026. One lawyer, reporting to the chief executive, covering regulation, procurement and disputes. Shortlist on day 24. Accepted offer in week 11. Base £118,000. It is the only private-sector base in the Belfast record. The London first-general-counsel floor of £140,000 was shown to the candidate and was not required to close the file.
  • First counsel, mid-market manufacturer, 2025. The company had used external solicitors and wanted one employee. Shortlist on day 18 included a lawyer whose CV said solicitor and whose certificate was England and Wales. The seat could not be held on that certificate. The file was reopened and accepted in week 19, 7 weeks after the check failed. The company still hired.

4 files since 2017 is a small base. It will not support a Belfast acceptance rate, a Belfast retention rate, or a Belfast median that replaces the firm figures of 96 percent, 97 percent at 12 months, 91 percent at 24 months, and 11 weeks. Those stay firm-wide. The local fact is the admission failure on 1 file in 4, and the £118,000 base on the single chief-legal file.

07 — Method

How a Belfast shortlist is built

  1. 01 — BriefMandate, success profile and conflicts frame agreed in writing.
  2. 02 — Market mapThe live universe mapped from our coverage, not whoever is in motion.
  3. 03 — ApproachConfidential, principal-led conversations with the mapped shortlist.
  4. 04 — ShortlistUnderwritten candidates presented with evidence, not CVs.
  5. 05 — OfferPackage design, references and counter-offer defence.
  6. 06 — CloseResignation, notice and the first hundred days, managed.

The global map is 1,480,000+ lawyers. A counted local profession is the Law Society's 3,174 practising certificates in 2024 and NISRA's 149 Belfast legal-aid firms in 2025/26. Those denominators stay apart.

A Belfast shortlist starts from the roll that matches the work, then from people who are not already in a live process for someone else. Lawyers we have placed stay off-limits while they remain in seat. A client's legal department stays off-limits for 24 months after a mandate. Delivery-centre lawyers are in bounds when they are ready to advise a single employer. They are a poor source for a first general counsel when the recent work was document review for other firms' clients.

Companies comparing markets should keep the rolls separate. In-house counsel recruiting in London runs on the Solicitors Regulation Authority and a much larger bench. Dublin runs on the Law Society of Ireland. Belfast runs on the 1976 Order, a January certificate expiry, Article 118 notice, and a one-year unfair-dismissal qualifying period. The retained terms do not change: 25 to 30 percent of first-year total compensation, retainer of 30 percent of the fee, shortlist in 24 days on a general counsel search, median accepted offer in 11 weeks.

08 — Sources

Market sources for this page

›24 sources cited on this page
  1. 1Sartori & Partners research program — firm track record (400+ placements since 2017 (230+ in-house); GC shortlist 24 days; median accepted offer 11 weeks)Firm-wide clocks, acceptance, retention, and retained-fee terms. Belfast file counts are separate and marked for review.
  2. 2Law Society of Northern Ireland, Annual Report 2024–20253,174 practising certificates issued in 2024; roll of 6,454 at 31 December 2024; 219 admissions in 2024; 155 admitted at the February 2025 ceremony; 169 trainees started in September 2025.
  3. 3Legal Futures, 29 July 2026 — solicitors in Northern IrelandAround 3,000 practising solicitors, the vast majority based in Belfast, as stated in July 2026.
  4. 4NISRA, Legal Aid Utilisation Annual Statistics, bulletin published 24 September 2026422 solicitor firms and 633 barristers on LAMS in 2025/26; Belfast 149 firms, 35 percent, 42.3 firms per 100,000 population.
  5. 5Invest Northern Ireland — Professional and legal servicesAlmost 20,000 people in professional and legal services (NI BRES 2021); almost 450 local law firms, 3,000 solicitors and 600 barristers and KCs on the agency's sector page.
  6. 6Invest NI client performance indicators, published June 202632,918 jobs in financial, professional and business services and 43,173 jobs in advanced engineering and manufacturing among Invest NI clients. Published June 2026. The release covers Invest NI clients only, after a 40 percent sample increase, and is not the whole economy.
  7. 7A&O Shearman careers — Belfast, accessed 7 October 2026Over 800 legal and business employees; Belfast described as the firm's third-largest office after London and New York.
  8. 8Baker McKenzie, December 2025 — executive director, Belfast centreNearly 500 people in the Belfast centre at the December 2025 appointment.
  9. 9The Irish News, 9 February 2026 — Baker McKenzie Belfast reviewProposed reduction of dozens of Belfast roles after a business-services review; no Belfast headcount after the review is stated.
  10. 10News Letter, 22 July 2026 — Fieldfisher BelfastFieldfisher Belfast above 300 employees, from five in 2018, with more than 100 joiners since January 2026.
  11. 11Business Plus, 4 August 2026 — Lewis Silkin BelfastBelfast office above 80 people and eight partners; employment law 41 percent of staff.
  12. 12News Letter, 30 September 2026 — Bank of America BelfastReported workforce target of up to 1,000 people, about 350 in the first year.
  13. 13Citi — Legal Counsel, Enterprise, Vice President, Belfast (listing dated May 2026)In-house Technology, Operations and Privacy legal seat in Belfast inside Citi Legal.
  14. 14Citi — Lead Counsel, Markets Legal Contract Management, BelfastBelfast Markets Legal team supporting prime services, futures, clearing and FX documentation.
  15. 15Kainos — Principal AI and Data Counsel, BelfastA Belfast-headquartered software company hiring counsel to own global AI and data law.
  16. 16NIPSA, NICS Members' Guide, scales from 1 August 2025 to 31 March 2026Grade 7 £61,673 / £63,072 / £64,469; Grade 6 £73,577 / £75,739 / £77,904; Grade 5 £88,268 to £97,070; Permanent Secretary scale £146,469 to £163,267, 1 August 2025 to 31 March 2026.
  17. 17Department of Finance — Departmental Solicitor candidate bookletSalary £146,469 to £163,267. The salary line states a 34.2 percent employer pension contribution. The benefits section states 34.25 percent for the main defined-benefit scheme. £50,092 is 34.2 percent of £146,469, to the nearest pound.
  18. 18Departmental Solicitor's Office — trainee solicitor booklet, start 1 September 2026Three trainee posts at £24,454, Lanyon Plaza, Belfast.
  19. 19Solicitors (Northern Ireland) Order 1976, Articles 4, 11, 19 and 20Qualification requires admission, the roll and a practising certificate; certificates expire at the end of 5 January; Article 19 bars an unqualified person in court or tribunal; Article 20 fine cap still printed is £100.
  20. 20Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, Article 118Statutory minimum notice in Northern Ireland.
  21. 21GOV.UK — eligibility to claim unfair dismissalNorthern Ireland qualifying period is still usually one year, stated alongside the Great Britain change due on 1 January 2027.
  22. 22Acas — employment tribunal time limitsMost Great Britain tribunal time limits moved to six months on 1 October 2026. The page is Great Britain guidance and is not cited as an amendment of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996.
  23. 23Law Society of Ireland — Snapshot of the Solicitors' Profession 2025, published 8 June 2026Irish practising certificates with a Northern Ireland county address: Antrim 127, Derry 23, Down 19, Tyrone 11, Armagh 5, Fermanagh 3. The page total of 188 is the sum of those six rows.
  24. 24Belfast Chamber — Allstate Northern IrelandAllstate NI, established 1998, European digital centre with Belfast and North West sites.

09 — Questions

In-house counsel recruiting in Belfast — common questions

When should a company call in-house counsel recruiters in Belfast?

When the seat will be held out as a solicitor in Northern Ireland. Article 4 of the Solicitors (Northern Ireland) Order 1976 requires admission, a name on the roll, and a current practising certificate. An England-and-Wales certificate does not meet that test. On a retained general counsel search the shortlist is 24 days and the median accepted offer is 11 weeks.

How many solicitors practice in Northern Ireland?

The Law Society of Northern Ireland issued 3,174 practising certificates in 2024, and the roll stood at 6,454 solicitors on 31 December 2024. Legal Futures reported on 29 July 2026 that around 3,000 solicitors practice and that the vast majority are based in Belfast. Those figures are the Law Society of Northern Ireland roll, not the Irish roll.

What does a public-sector lawyer in Belfast earn in 2026?

On the Northern Ireland Civil Service scales printed for 1 August 2025 to 31 March 2026, Grade 7 runs from £61,673 to £64,469 and Grade 6 from £73,577 to £77,904. The Departmental Solicitor candidate booklet stated £146,469 to £163,267, plus an employer pension contribution of 34.2 percent.

What notice period applies to a Belfast in-house hire?

Article 118 of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 sets the minimum: one week under two years' service, one week per year from two years up to under twelve, and twelve weeks at twelve years or more. An employee employed for one month or more must give at least one week. A contract may require longer notice, and either side may accept pay in lieu. Acas records that most Great Britain tribunal time limits moved to six months on 1 October 2026. That change does not rewrite the 1996 Order.

What does a retained Belfast search cost?

Retained only. The fee is 25 to 30 percent of the hire's total first-year compensation. Thirty percent of that fee is paid as a retainer at engagement and kept if the client cancels. The replacement term is 12 months on a general counsel, chief legal officer, or chief compliance officer search, and 6 months on other in-house searches.

Which pay page should a Belfast board read with this one?

Read the UK general counsel salary page for the chief legal seat and the UK in-house counsel salary page for counsel below it. Use the Northern Ireland Civil Service scales in the compensation table as the local public comparator. A London newly qualified figure is a different market and does not belong in a Belfast offer letter.

Hiring in Belfast?

Brief us on the search.

Tell us whether the seat needs a Northern Ireland solicitor, a barrister, or either, and what notice the business can carry. Fee and replacement term go in the letter before anyone is called.

Hire legal talent Talk to us

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