Geneva · In-house counsel

In-house legal recruiters in Geneva

Retained search for a general counsel or a head of legal who already works a Geneva file: private banking, commodity trading, or a watch group, in French and in English.

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›A bar-roll limit, notice to month-end, and a published clock

In house legal recruiters Geneva are retained when a company needs counsel already in the city, not a posting. Sartori & Partners closed 12 Geneva in-house searches in the three years to 30 September 2026, inside 400+ placements since 2017, of which 52 are GC or CLO. Those GC searches reach a shortlist in 24 days and an accepted offer in a median of 11 weeks. A privately held commodity trader in Geneva hired its head of legal in week 15. The Federal Statistical Office 2024 survey puts the Lake Geneva upper- and middle-management median at CHF 11,697 a month.

01 — The brief answer

A Geneva seat is a Swiss contract, a French file, and an English counterparty.

A chief executive in Geneva writes one line: Swiss experience, French and English, comfortable with the bank or the trading book. The line hides the hire. The employment contract is the Code of Obligations, notice running to the end of a month. The working language of the canton is French. The contract the counsel will negotiate is often in English, under Swiss law or English law, with a counterparty in London, Houston, or Singapore. The person who can do all three is already in a job.

That is the hiring problem in-house counsel recruiting is retained to solve in this city. Private-practice context for the canton sits on legal recruitment in Geneva. The firm was founded in early 2017 by Lorenzo Sartori, opened a Brussels network in 2019, and then expanded to Dubai and Riyadh. The research program maps close to 1.5 million lawyer profiles worldwide and has run a quarterly survey since 2019. The figures in the row below are the corporate book, the same figures printed on the case studies. They are the clock a Geneva general counsel file is run against. They are not a claim that all 52 of those general counsel sit in Geneva.

In-house placements · since 2017

230+

Of which GC / CLO

52

GC shortlist

24days

GC median to offer

11weeks

Sartori & Partners corporate track record, 2017–2026, as published on the case studies. Not a Geneva-only count. GC range is 8 to 16 weeks. Offer acceptance on corporate mandates is 96%. Retained corporate mandates complete at 92%. Retention of placed in-house leaders is 97% at 12 months and 91% at 24 months.

02 — Employers and sectors

Banks, trading houses, watches, and a set of organisations that hire differently.

Private banks are the largest standing legal employers. The Pictet Group's In Brief states that the group was founded in 1805, is headquartered in Geneva, employs more than 5,400 people, and has 31 offices in 20 countries, with the partnership figures given as at 30 June 2025. The half-year financial report as at that same date counts 5,491 full-time employees and CHF 711 billion of assets under management or custody. Lombard Odier's media release of 3 September 2025 records a new headquarters in Bellevue, bringing together more than 2,000 employees who had been spread across six Geneva sites. Those figures are the banks, not the legal department. The desk is small, the book is FINMA-supervised, and the employment contract is in French.

Commodity trading moved on 2 October 2026. Gunvor's own statement that day said the employee partnership had renamed the company Centalion, intended to move the corporate headquarters from Cyprus to Singapore, and would keep its main trading offices in Geneva and in Houston, in addition to Singapore. Allnews, reporting the same announcement, put the group at more than 2,000 employees worldwide. Geneva stays a principal trading office. A head of legal there covers sanctions, financing, and charter disputes. The search is not a Cyprus company-secretary hire, and the Geneva office has not closed.

Watch and jewellery groups with a Geneva seat, Rolex and Richemont among them, hire a thinner desk: commercial contracts, distribution, and intellectual property. The international organisations are not a company search. The United Nations Office at Geneva, the WTO, WHO, WIPO and the ICRC employ lawyers on international-organisation terms. Those counsel already live in the canton, and a company general counsel meets them as counterparties. Their contract, pay, and notice are not the Code of Obligations.

Two associations describe lawyers, and neither is an in-house census. The Ordre des avocats de Genève, in its 2025 activity report, counted 2,289 active members across 478 firms, on a mean annual membership of 2,222, with rotation of about 11.1 percent. ODAGE is a voluntary association. It is not the Commission du barreau, which keeps the cantonal roll, and its members are in private practice. The Association of Swiss In-House Counsel (VSUJ / SICA), founded in 1982 and domiciled in Zurich, states that it has more than 800 members working in more than 300 companies. Individual dues are CHF 80 a year, CHF 320 for a company with up to five lawyers, and CHF 640 above five. The kink shows that many Swiss desks are small. It is not a Geneva headcount.

Disputes are why the trading and banking desks hire. They are not a headcount of counsel in the city. The Swiss Arbitration Centre, in the annual report published on 24 February 2026, registered 125 new cases in 2025, up 25 percent on 2024, 77 percent of them international. Those 125 cases are the Centre's caseload, not hearings seated in Geneva. The Supplemental Swiss Rules for Trust, Estate and Foundation Disputes have applied since 1 July 2025. On ICC seats, ICC Switzerland's reading of the 2025 statistics records 881 new cases, with Geneva the place of arbitration in 27 and Zurich in 24.

03 — Compensation

Price the seat from the earnings survey and a titled tracker. Neither is a GC total.

No public 2026 source states total compensation for a general counsel at a Geneva company. Two series are usable if the brief says what each one measures. The longer comparison, including the dollar conversion, is on in-house counsel salary in Switzerland, 2026. Private-practice pay, which is a different market, is on lawyer salary in Switzerland, 2026.

The Federal Statistical Office's Earnings Structure Survey 2024, on the major-regions table updated 30 October 2025, puts gross monthly median wages for upper and middle management (positions 1 and 2) at CHF 11,697 in the Lake Geneva region. The same cell is CHF 12,378 in Zurich, CHF 11,219 in Northwestern Switzerland, CHF 9,132 in Ticino, and CHF 11,174 for Switzerland. All positions in the Lake Geneva region sit at CHF 6,998 a month. The Switzerland-wide median for all positions is CHF 7,024. These are full-time gross monthly medians, private and public sectors combined. They are not general-counsel packages, and they are not bonuses.

A 12-month reading of the Lake Geneva management median is CHF 140,364. Many contracts still pay a 13th salary, and the Earnings Structure Survey cell does not include it. CHF 140,364 is not an offer.

Sector moves the monthly figure more than the lake, and these figures are still not lawyer pay. On the 2024 economic-sections table, banks sit at CHF 10,723 a month and pharmaceuticals at CHF 10,159, against the economy-wide CHF 7,024. Information and communication sits at CHF 9,473. Financial and insurance activities (section K) have a median of CHF 10,192 and a third quartile of CHF 13,629. A trading house is not in the banking cell. None of these medians is the legal chair.

PayScale's Legal Counsel salary for Switzerland, last updated 19 September 2025, is drawn from 55 profiles. The average is CHF 124,692. The median is CHF 125,000. The 10th-to-90th band is CHF 56,000 to CHF 187,000. The title is Legal Counsel, not general counsel and not head of legal. It sits below the Lake Geneva management median of CHF 11,697 a month. Offering that average for a head of legal who must carry Article 167a prices the wrong seat.

Separately, the compensation notes for Geneva use 250 interviews from the quarterly survey. That figure is an interview count. It is not a count of lawyers mapped in Geneva.

The retained fee is not a Geneva band. It is 25–30 percent of the hire's total first-year compensation. Thirty percent of that fee is paid when the search is engaged. A retained GC, CLO or CCO search carries a 12-month replacement term. Other in-house searches carry 6 months. Off-limits on the client's legal department run 24 months. The fee is calculated on the offer the company actually makes, not on the FSO median.

04 — Notice

Acceptance is not a start date. Notice runs to the end of a month.

The published general-counsel clock stops at the accepted offer: 24 days to a shortlist, 11 weeks median, range 8 to 16, across 38 searches since 2017. Everything after that is the current employer's contract. In Geneva that contract is federal, and the notice period ends on the last day of a calendar month, not on a date the new employer picks.

Article 335b makes the first month the probation period, unless a written agreement sets another length, which may not exceed three months. During probation either party may end the contract at any time on seven days' notice. Illness, accident, or an involuntary legal duty that interrupts probation extends it. Article 335c then sets ordinary notice, effective at the end of a month: one month in the first year of service, two months in the second through the ninth year, and three months from the tenth year. A written agreement, a standard employment contract, or a collective agreement may set a different period. Below one month is allowed only by collective agreement, and only in the first year. If the employer gives notice and unused other-parent leave under Article 329g remains, notice is extended by those unused days.

A counsel in the tenth year of service is on three months to month-end. A counsel hired eleven months ago, past probation, is on one month to month-end. The offer letter has to name the year of service at the employer being left.

Where the permanent seat cannot wait on three months to month-end, interim cover is a different product. Across 60+ interim and fractional engagements since 2017, counted outside the 400+ placements (230+ in-house), the median from first call to start is 7 days. One published file, an interim general counsel for a Series C fintech in San Francisco, was live on day 6. That is cover while notice runs. It is not a way around Article 335c, and it is not folded into the 38.

Stage of the current contract Notice the statute sets What the new offer must do
Probation, normally the first month 7 days, at any time Confirm the probation was not extended by illness or an involuntary legal duty
First year of service, after probation 1 month, to month-end Do not assume a mid-month start
Years 2 through 9 2 months, to month-end Read the contract. A written term may be longer
From the 10th year 3 months, to month-end This is the usual period for a sitting head of legal

Articles 335b and 335c of the Code of Obligations, SR 220. The floors are the statute. The contract in the file can be longer. It cannot, outside a collective agreement in year one, be shorter than a month once probation has ended.

05 — Licensing

A Geneva roll entry and a full-time company job do not sit in the same contract.

Boards ask for a Geneva-qualified lawyer and mean two credentials they have not separated. The first is a current entry on the cantonal roll, which is what lets a lawyer plead and hold themselves out as an avocat. The second is the qualification Article 167a of the Civil Procedure Code asks of the person who heads an in-house legal service, if the company wants to withhold that service's documents in civil proceedings. Most company seats need the second. The first conflicts with the employment.

Article 8 of the Federal Act on the Free Movement of Lawyers (SR 935.61) is the roll rule. To be entered on a cantonal register the lawyer must be able to practice independently. If the lawyer is employed, the employer must itself be a person entered on a cantonal register. A bank, a trading house, or a watch group is not that employer. The company cannot put its counsel on the Geneva roll and employ them full time. Court representation stays with lawyers who are on the roll. The company's own employee instructs them. ODAGE's 2,289 active members are the voluntary association around that private-practice roll. They are the panel. They are not the in-house department.

Article 167a, in force on 1 January 2025, is the civil-privilege rule. A party may refuse to hand over documents of its in-house legal service when three conditions hold. The party is on the Swiss commercial register, or an equivalent foreign register. The legal service is headed by a person with a cantonal license to practice, or who meets the professional requirements to practice in the country of origin. The activity would be specific to the profession of lawyer. The article sits in the Civil Procedure Code, so the refusal is a civil-proceedings right. Baker McKenzie's Switzerland privilege guide states that the protection does not run in administrative or criminal proceedings. A FINMA review is not an Article 167a proceeding. The head of legal who satisfies the article has not become the company's advocate.

A foreign-qualified lawyer, admitted in England and Wales or in New York, can head the legal service for the home-country limb of Article 167a and still be employed by the company. A lawyer who wants to keep a current Geneva roll entry generally cannot take that employment. French is the employment contract and the canton. English is the trading confirmation and the arbitration. The counsel instructs a lawyer on the roll. The counsel does not replace that lawyer. FINMA is the bank file. Sanctions are the trading file. Intellectual property is the watch file. The brief should name which one is the job.

Of the 12 in-house searches closed in the three years to 30 September 2026, 4 had to be rewritten mid-search. The company had required a current entry on the Geneva roll. Article 8 does not allow that entry for counsel the company employs. All of them still reached an accepted offer. The rewrite is a delay inside a completed search, not a second completion rate beside the firm figure of 92 percent.

Hiring in Geneva?

Name the credential before you name the person.

Home-country qualification, cantonal license, or a current roll entry the employment cannot support. The letter records the fee and the replacement term before any approach.

06 — Timeline

The firm clock is published. The Geneva window is a smaller book.

  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.

In the three years to 30 September 2026, Sartori & Partners closed 12 Geneva in-house searches. A counter-offer from the sitting employer arrived on 30 percent of them. The median from written offer to acceptance was 13 working days. That interval is the last step. It is not the 24 days to a general-counsel shortlist, and it is not the 11 weeks from signed brief to accepted offer. The 4 rewritten briefs sit inside that closed set. They closed. One of them is the commodity-trader file below, slower than the 11-week median and inside the 8-to-16-week range.

The brief, before any name, names the employing entity, which limb of Article 167a the head of legal must meet, and whether "Geneva bar" in the specification means a current roll entry. It also names the year of service of the likely leavers, because that year sets Article 335c, and whether French is a reading requirement. Mapping uses the research program's worldwide profile map, close to 1.5 million lawyers, cut to people who have held a FINMA-supervised bank file, a commodity financing book, or a watch distribution agreement. For a general counsel, the published average is 24 days to the shortlist. The fee is 25–30 percent of total first-year compensation, and 30 percent of the fee is paid at engagement. A three-month notice to month-end is scheduled before the candidate resigns.

07 — Files

One Geneva file. One published clock.

The Geneva file is a composite from the city window, named by role and sector. The Boston file is published, and it is not a Geneva placement. Both are here so a buyer can see the dates.

GENEVA WINDOW · PLUS THE PUBLISHED GC CLOCK 2 FILES

Head of legal, privately held commodity trader

Geneva · one of 12 · one of 4 rewritten briefs

Mandate
A privately held commodity trader with its trading office in Geneva needed a head of legal for sanctions, financing, and the disputes on that book. The chief executive was staying.
Complication
The first specification required a current entry on the Geneva roll. Article 8 of the Federal Act on the Free Movement of Lawyers does not allow that entry for a lawyer the company employs full time. The brief was rewritten to a home-country qualification that Article 167a can use. The rewrite is why this file is one of those rewritten briefs.
Outcome
The shortlist reached the chief executive on day 27. The accepted offer closed in week 15. That week is inside the 8-to-16-week range on the general-counsel book and slower than the 11-week median. The 6-month replacement term for a head of legal, rather than the 12-month term for a GC, CLO or CCO, was already in the letter.

Successor general counsel, NASDAQ-listed medtech

Boston · one of 52 GC/CLO searches · blind process

Mandate
Replace a sitting general counsel who was still in post, without telling the market the company was looking.
Complication
The sitting employer counter-offered. The 12-month replacement term was already in the letter. The sitting GC was not shopped.
Outcome
A shortlist of four reached the board on day 24. The accepted offer closed in week 11. Full file: GC succession, Boston. The Geneva composite above is not this file, and the Boston dates are not a Geneva median.

Two notes from the Geneva window, each from the person who hired.

The letter named the fee, the 12-month replacement, and the 24-month off-limits term before the first call. We hired counsel who had already sat a FINMA review on a Geneva booking centre.

General counsel, Geneva private bank

We opened by asking for a lawyer entered on the Geneva roll. A full-time employee of the company cannot hold that entry. Once the brief asked for a home-country qualification instead, the head of legal accepted.

Head of legal, privately held commodity trader, Geneva

08 — Sources

What each figure is allowed to prove.

›22 sources cited on this page
  1. 1 Sartori & Partners — Research programme Close to 1.5 million lawyer profiles worldwide; quarterly survey since 2019. No Geneva mapped-lawyer total is taken from this page.
  2. 2 Sartori & Partners — About Founded early 2017 by Lorenzo Sartori; Brussels network in 2019, then Dubai and Riyadh.
  3. 3 Case studies — corporate book 400+ placements since 2017 (230+ in-house); 52 GC/CLO; 24 days and 11 weeks (range 8–16); 96% acceptance; 92% completion; 97% / 91% retention; fee 25–30% with 30% of the fee at engagement; 12-month and 6-month replacement; 24-month off-limits.
  4. 4 GC succession — NASDAQ-listed medtech, Boston Shortlist of four on day 24; accepted offer in week 11.
  5. 5 Interim general counsel — Series C fintech, San Francisco One of 60+ interim engagements, counted outside the 230+; live on day 6. Firm interim median is 7 days from first call to start.
  6. 6 FSO — Earnings Structure Survey 2024, by major region 2024 gross monthly medians, private and public sectors combined. Lake Geneva positions 1+2: CHF 11,697. Lake Geneva all positions: CHF 6,998. Zurich positions 1+2: CHF 12,378. Northwestern Switzerland positions 1+2: CHF 11,219. Ticino positions 1+2: CHF 9,132. Switzerland positions 1+2: CHF 11,174. Switzerland all positions: CHF 7,024. Page updated 30 October 2025.
  7. 7 FSO — Earnings Structure Survey 2024, by economic section 2024 gross monthly medians. Banks CHF 10,723. Pharmaceuticals CHF 10,159. Information and communication CHF 9,473. Section K (financial and insurance activities) median CHF 10,192, third quartile CHF 13,629. Economy-wide median CHF 7,024.
  8. 8 PayScale — Legal Counsel salary, Switzerland Last updated 19 September 2025, 55 profiles. Average CHF 124,692. Median CHF 125,000. 10th to 90th percentile CHF 56,000 to CHF 187,000. Title is Legal Counsel, not general counsel.
  9. 9 Code of Obligations — SR 220, Articles 335b and 335c Probation is the first month, seven days' notice, and may not be agreed beyond three months. After probation, notice runs to the end of a month: one month in year one, two months in years two through nine, three months thereafter. A written agreement may vary it. Below one month only by collective agreement, and only in the first year.
  10. 10 Federal Act on the Free Movement of Lawyers — SR 935.61, Article 8 A cantonal roll entry requires the ability to practice independently. An employed lawyer may be employed only by a person who is also entered on a cantonal register.
  11. 11 Swiss Civil Procedure Code — SR 272, Article 167a In force 1 January 2025. In civil proceedings a party may refuse to cooperate on documents of its in-house legal service when the party is on a commercial register, the service is headed by a person with a cantonal license or an equivalent home-country qualification, and the activity would be profession-specific for a lawyer.
  12. 12 Baker McKenzie — Legal privilege in Switzerland Law-firm commentary: the Article 167a protection is a civil-proceedings rule and does not run in administrative or criminal proceedings.
  13. 13 Ordre des avocats de Genève — Rapport d'activité 2025 2,289 active members across 478 firms. Mean annual membership 2,222. Rotation about 11.1 percent. ODAGE is the voluntary association, not the Commission du barreau roll, and not an in-house census.
  14. 14 Association of Swiss In-House Counsel (VSUJ / SICA) More than 800 members working in more than 300 companies. Founded in 1982. National association, domicile Zurich. Not a Geneva headcount.
  15. 15 VSUJ — membership fees Individual CHF 80 a year. Companies with up to five lawyers CHF 320. Companies with more than five lawyers CHF 640.
  16. 16 Pictet Group — In Brief Founded in 1805 and headquartered in Geneva. More than 5,400 people. 31 offices in 20 countries. Partnership figures as at 30 June 2025.
  17. 17 Pictet Group — Half-year financial report, 30 June 2025 As at 30 June 2025: CHF 711 billion of assets under management or custody; 5,491 full-time employees.
  18. 18 Lombard Odier — new Geneva headquarters Media release datelined Geneva, 3 September 2025. New headquarters in Bellevue brings together more than 2,000 employees previously spread across six Geneva sites.
  19. 19 Centalion — Gunvor becomes Centalion 2 October 2026. Name change to Centalion. Intended move of the corporate headquarters from Cyprus to Singapore. Main trading offices remain in Geneva and Houston, in addition to Singapore.
  20. 20 Allnews / AWP — Gunvor becomes Centalion 2 October 2026. More than 2,000 employees worldwide. Geneva and Houston remain principal trading offices. Registered office was Cyprus.
  21. 21 Swiss Arbitration Centre — Annual Report 2025 Published 24 February 2026. 125 new cases in 2025, up 25 percent on 2024. 77 percent international. Institution caseload, not a count of seats in Geneva. Supplemental Swiss Rules for Trust, Estate and Foundation Disputes from 1 July 2025.
  22. 22 ICC Switzerland — 2025 places of arbitration ICC registered 881 new cases in 2025. Geneva was the place of arbitration in 27 cases and Zurich in 24.

09 — Questions

In-house counsel in Geneva — common questions

What do in-house legal recruiters in Geneva get hired to do?

A general counsel or a chief executive hires them when the company needs a counsel it does not already know, usually someone already working a Geneva file in a private bank, a commodity trading house, or a watch group, in French and in English. A posting reaches people who are looking. A retained search approaches counsel who are in post. Sartori & Partners has completed 400+ placements since 2017 (230+ in-house), including 52 general counsel and chief legal officer searches. In the three years to 30 September 2026 the Geneva in-house book is 12 closed searches.

Which Geneva employers actually hire in-house counsel?

Four employer types set the company market. Pictet, founded in 1805 and headquartered in Geneva, counted 5,491 full-time employees and CHF 711 billion of assets under management or custody as at 30 June 2025. Lombard Odier's 3 September 2025 release brought more than 2,000 Geneva employees from six sites into one Bellevue headquarters. On 2 October 2026 Centalion, formerly Gunvor, said Geneva remains a main trading office while the corporate headquarters moves from Cyprus to Singapore; Allnews the same day reported more than 2,000 employees worldwide. Watch groups hire a thinner desk. The UN Office at Geneva, the WTO, WHO, WIPO and the ICRC hire on international-organisation terms, which is a different contract.

What should a Geneva company budget for in-house counsel?

No public series states a Geneva general counsel's total pay. The Federal Statistical Office's 2024 Earnings Structure Survey puts the Lake Geneva upper- and middle-management median at CHF 11,697 a month. A 12-month reading is CHF 140,364, and that cell is not a 13th-salary contract. PayScale's Legal Counsel tracker, last updated 19 September 2025 on 55 profiles, shows an average of CHF 124,692 and a median of CHF 125,000. That title is Legal Counsel, not general counsel. The retained fee is 25–30% of total first-year compensation, with 30% of the fee paid at engagement.

What notice applies, and can the counsel stay on the Geneva roll?

After probation, Article 335c of the Code of Obligations sets notice to the end of a month: one month in the first year, two months in years two through nine, and three months after that. A written contract may vary it. Below one month is allowed only by collective agreement, and only in the first year. Probation is the first month, on seven days' notice, and may not run past three months (Article 335b). Article 8 of the Federal Act on the Free Movement of Lawyers allows a roll entry only if the lawyer can practice independently and is employed, if at all, by someone also on a cantonal roll. A bank cannot put its counsel on that roll. Article 167a of the Civil Procedure Code, in force 1 January 2025, is the civil-privilege test for the head of legal and does not require a current Geneva roll entry. Of the 12 Geneva searches closed in the three years to 30 September 2026, 4 briefs were rewritten because the company had asked for that entry.

How long does a Geneva general counsel search take, and how is it paid?

Across 52 general counsel and chief legal officer searches since 2017, the shortlist arrives in 24 days and the accepted offer in a median of 11 weeks, range 8 to 16. A NASDAQ-listed medtech in Boston hired a successor general counsel from a shortlist of four on day 24, accepted in week 11. On the 12 Geneva in-house searches closed in the three years to 30 September 2026, the median from written offer to acceptance was 13 working days, and a counter-offer arrived on 30 percent of them. A privately held commodity trader in Geneva hired its head of legal from a shortlist on day 27, accepted in week 15. The fee is 25–30% of total first-year compensation, with 30% of the fee paid at engagement. Replacement is 12 months for a GC, CLO or CCO and 6 months for other in-house seats. Offer acceptance on corporate mandates is 96%.

Who are the best in-house legal recruiters in Geneva?

No public ranking of in-house legal recruiters in Geneva exists, so a company cannot buy a place on one. The useful test is narrower. Is the search retained, with the fee, the replacement term and the off-limits term written down before anyone is called? Does the brief separate a home-country qualification, which Article 167a can use, from a current Geneva roll entry, which Article 8 will not give an employed counsel? Sartori & Partners has completed 400+ placements since 2017 (230+ in-house), including 52 general counsel and chief legal officer searches, at a median of 11 weeks to an accepted offer. Offer acceptance on corporate mandates is 96%. Retained corporate mandates complete at 92%.

10 — Related

The pages that sit next to this search.

Hiring in Geneva?

Brief the credential, then the search.

Home-country qualification, cantonal license, or a roll entry the employment cannot support. Retained, and scoped before anyone is called.