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Lisbon · In-house counsel

In-house legal recruiters in Lisbon

Retained search for a general counsel or a chief executive hiring counsel the Lisbon department does not already know. The title, the notice and the pay source are Portuguese. The search clock is the one we publish.

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›A Portuguese title, a 30- or 60-day notice, and a clock that is published

In house legal recruiters Lisbon companies retain when a general counsel or a chief executive needs counsel the department does not already know. Sartori & Partners has completed 400+ placements since 2017 (230+ in-house), including 52 general counsel searches: a shortlist in 24 days and a median accepted offer in 11 weeks. The Madrid in-house line used for Lisbon closed 15 searches over three years. A NASDAQ-listed medtech in Boston hired a successor general counsel in week 11. ECO, on 1 June 2026, reported that DGPJ counted 37,842 lawyers inscribed in Portugal in 2025.

01 — The brief answer

General counsel recruiters Lisbon are hired for a seat the department does not already know.

A chief executive in Lisbon writes one line and hides three problems: whether the counsel may use the title advogado, which notice the person already in the seat must give, and what the seat pays. Portugal publishes a national wage average and a monthly minimum. It does not publish a 2026 euro band for a general counsel, and a dollar band from another market is the wrong instrument.

That is the work in-house counsel recruiting is retained to do in this city. Sartori & Partners was founded in early 2017 by Lorenzo Sartori. The firm does not list a Lisbon office. The band below is the corporate book on the case studies, the clock a Lisbon general counsel file is run against. It is the firm book. A Lisbon brief then uses the Madrid in-house line, the nearest labelled market, and those counts sit in the timeline. Private-practice context is on legal recruitment in Lisbon.

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. Firm book, applied as the search clock. GC range is 8 to 16 weeks. Offer acceptance on corporate mandates is 96%.

02 — Employers and sectors

The national roll is a bar census. The buyers are the issuers with a Lisbon seat.

ECO, on 1 June 2026, reported the Direção-Geral da Política de Justiça count of lawyers inscribed in the Ordem dos Advogados in 2025 as 37,842, down 739 from 2024, of whom 21,545 were women and 16,297 were men, with 1,380 trainees counted beside that stock. DGPJ's note of 29 May 2026 says the 2025 justice statistics include that lawyer count and does not print the integer. Pordata, updated the same day and also citing DGPJ, lists a provisional 36,462 for 2025. The two series stay separate. Neither is a count of lawyers whose professional domicile is Lisbon, and neither is a count of in-house counsel.

The Lisbon regional council's activity report, dated 24 February 2026, publishes a flow. In 2025 it received 1,431 inscription requests: 919 for trainee lawyers, 510 for lawyers finishing the traineeship, 1 for a lawyer of the European Union, and 1 immediate inscription. Those four figures are requests received. They are the year's intake at one regional council. They are not the stock of advogados in the city, and they do not say how many of those people sit inside a company.

A Lisbon legal department is the employer's own filing, not the bar roll. EDP's 2025 results page states the registered office as Av. 24 de Julho, 12, 1249-300 Lisboa, and states that the 2025 results were released on 25 February 2026, after the Euronext close. Expresso, reporting that CMVM filing the same day, put net profit at €1,150 million, up 44 percent, recurring net profit at €1,279 million, and recurring EBITDA at €5,028 million, up 1 percent. Galp's bylaws, in the text dated 27 February 2026, put the registered office in Lisbon at Avenida da Índia, 8, and leave the board free to move it. Galp's full-year 2025 release put RCA EBITDA at €3,039 million and operating cash flow at €2,179 million. The integrated report index dates that report 23 March 2026. Jerónimo Martins' contact page puts Jerónimo Martins, SGPS, S.A. at Rua Actor António Silva 7, 1649-033 Lisboa, which is the same address as the 24 April 2025 general meeting. The 2025 report put consolidated sales at €35,991 million, up 7.6 percent, or 6.7 percent at constant exchange rates, and described the same total as 36 billion euros.

Energy and food retail are the sectors those three filings put in Lisbon. A group energy counsel and a retail counsel are different briefs: the energy chair is energy general counsel search, and a first chair, as distinct from a replacement, starts with the first general counsel guide. A banking general counsel remains a separate product, banking general counsel search. A Lisbon registered office is not proof that the group general counsel sits there. Across 250 structured interviews on the Madrid in-house line used for this market, the seats that moved were the ones where a statute, a filing or a supervision file had already hit the employer's own accounts.

03 — The title

Advogado is an inscription. The job can be an employment contract.

Article 70.1 of the Statute of the Ordem dos Advogados reserves the denomination advogado for lawyers whose inscription is in force. A law degree, a foreign admission, or a lapsed inscription does not confer it. Article 66.1, in the text given by Law 6/2024, in force from 1 April 2024, makes inscription the condition for the title, for using it, and for the acts the law reserves to lawyers. Article 66-A.1 then reserves the court mandate, the mandato forense, as an exclusive act of lawyers, subject to the procedural laws and to the statute on acts of lawyers and solicitadores. A company that needs a name on a court filing needs that inscription. A company that needs a contracts counsel, and will instruct an advocate for anything that is a right of audience, should keep the title and the audience as two credentials.

Article 66-A.3 keeps a door open. Acts listed in that article may still be done by a person who is not inscribed, where another law authorizes it. The statute does not convert that person into an advogado. A job title such as jurista or diretor jurídico is the company's label. It is not the bar title. Signing an employment contract does not make the counsel the company's court advocate.

Employment itself is allowed, and the old subordination article is gone. Law 6/2024 revoked article 73. What remains is article 81. Article 81.4 says any appointment or contract, public or private, and expressly an employment contract, under which the lawyer practices, must respect technical autonomy, impartiality and independence, and the rest of the deontology in the statute. Article 81.5 voids contractual terms, and voids instructions from the hiring entity or from anyone to whom the lawyer is legally subordinate, when those terms or instructions restrict impartiality and independence or otherwise break the profession's rules. The letter should say that the contract is an article 81 contract. It should not revive article 73.

A lawyer established in another EU or EEA state has a separate route, and it is not a conversion into the Portuguese title. Articles 203 to 205 recognize the home-country professional title, require the home title to be stated in its own language with the home organization, and allow practice in Portugal under that title. Occasional services require prior notice to the Ordem. Establishment under the home title requires prior registration. Court representation and the judicial mandate, under the home title, may be exercised only under the direction of a lawyer inscribed in the Ordem. Article 204.3 is the other door: the Portuguese title advogado, after inscription. A New York qualification, and an English qualification, are not on the article 203 list of home titles. They explain the documents. They do not authorize the word advogado. Inside the company, general counsel recruiters Lisbon often add a second inscription the statute does not require for advice given from a single professional domicile. Language is the practical screen: the board pack in Lisbon is in Portuguese, and a foreign parent is often in English.

04 — Notice

Acceptance is not a start date. The notice is in the contract being left.

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 acceptance is the current employer's contract. In Lisbon that contract is one of four instruments, and the letter has to name which one the candidate is leaving. It is named by the contract in force, which is the contract being left.

Article 400.1 of the Labour Code, Law 7/2009, lets the worker end an indefinite contract without cause by written notice: 30 days if seniority is up to two years, and 60 days if seniority is longer. Article 400.2 then lets a collective instrument, or the employment contract itself, raise that notice, up to six months, for a worker who holds an administration or direction post, or functions of representation or responsibility. The six months is a ceiling the parties may write. It is not the period that applies because a business card says diretor jurídico. Article 400.3 sets a shorter clock on a fixed-term contract: 30 days if the contract has lasted at least six months, and 15 days if it has lasted less. On an uncertain term, the elapsed duration is what counts.

A comissão de serviço is its own modality. Article 163 lets either party end it on written notice of 30 days if the commission has lasted up to two years, and 60 days if it has lasted longer. Article 163.2 says a missing notice does not stop the end. It puts the party who missed it under a duty to compensate the other, on the terms of article 401. A general counsel on that modality can leave, or be released, inside 30 or 60 days. The six-month ceiling in article 400.2 is a different sentence, and it applies when the contract being left is an ordinary employment contract that has actually been extended, not because the person is senior.

Question the offer must answer Indefinite employment contract Direction role, notice extended Comissão de serviço EU or EEA lawyer under the home title
Instrument Labour Code, article 400.1, written notice Article 400.2, if the contract or a collective instrument says so Labour Code, article 163 Statute, articles 203 to 205, plus the employment contract being left
Notice the leaver gives 30 days up to two years' seniority; 60 days after that Whatever was written, with a ceiling of six months 30 days if the commission has lasted up to two years; 60 days if longer The employment contract being left. The home title does not set it.
Who this person is Counsel on an ordinary indefinite contract A worker in administration or direction, or with representation or responsibility, whose contract raised the notice A person whose contract is the commission modality A lawyer practicing under the home title, often in concert with an inscribed Portuguese lawyer for court work
Title advogado Only with a current inscription, article 70.1 Article 400.2 does not confer it Article 163 does not confer it The home title, until a Portuguese inscription is actually taken

The row that sets the start date is the row of the contract being left. A counsel on article 400.1 can be 30 or 60 days from a signature. A counsel whose contract used the article 400.2 ceiling can be six months from it. A counsel on article 163 is on 30 or 60 days even if the business card is senior. The offer should give each of them the Monday that matches the row.

05 — Compensation

Price the seat from Portuguese sources. A national average is a floor check.

No public 2026 euro table for a Lisbon general counsel was found. The readable figures are the national all-employee average, a later quarterly reading of the same series, and the statutory monthly minimum. Each one is dated. None of them is a lawyer table, and none of them is an offer.

INE's highlight of 13 February 2026 put the 2025 average gross monthly total pay at €1,694, up 5.6 percent in nominal terms and 3.2 percent in real terms, covering employees in Social Security and Caixa Geral de Aposentações. The regular component was €1,365 and the base component was €1,277. That is every job in the country for the full year 2025. INE's highlight of 14 August 2026 is a later window: in the quarter ended June 2026 the average gross monthly total pay was €1,835, up 5.1 percent, with the regular component at €1,436 and the base at €1,342. The two windows are not averaged. A general counsel paid from either average is being compared with the whole economy, which is a check, and is being paid as a general counsel only if the offer says so.

Decree-Law 139/2025, of 29 December, sets the guaranteed minimum monthly pay at €920 from 1 January 2026, the figure article 273 of the Labour Code points to. It is the floor a covered contract cannot undercut. It is the same floor for a shop employee and for a counsel, which is why it cannot price the counsel.

Spanish firm cash, and the Madrid offices-and-desks floor, live on lawyer salary in Spain, 2026. They are the neighboring country's instruments. Stage bands in dollars and sterling are on the general counsel salary guide and the in-house counsel salary guide. The fee on the search is 25–30 percent of total first-year compensation. Thirty percent of that fee is the retainer at engagement. Replacement is 12 months for a GC, CLO or CCO and 6 months for other in-house searches. Off-limits on the client's legal department run 24 months. Offer acceptance on corporate mandates is 96%. Retained corporate mandates complete at 92%. Retention is 97% at 12 months and 91% at 24 months.

Hiring in Lisbon?

Name the contract, then the person.

Title, notice and employing entity, in the letter, before anyone is called. The fee and the replacement term go in the same letter.

Discuss a Lisbon mandate → Talk to us →

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06 — Timeline

11 weeks gets an acceptance. The start date is a second clock.

A Lisbon file uses the firm clock for the role, then the local notice for the start date. The two clocks stay separate. Across 52 general counsel and chief legal officer searches since 2017, the shortlist is out in 24 days and the accepted offer closes in a median of 11 weeks, range 8 to 16. Senior counsel searches reach a shortlist in 18 days and an accepted offer in 8 weeks. Deputy general counsel and head of legal searches, 47 of them, run to a shortlist in 21 days and an offer in 10 weeks. The general counsel median is the wrong clock for a specialist seat, and the specialist median is the wrong clock for a chair.

Lisbon is run on the Madrid in-house line, the nearest labelled market. That line has been worked for 5 years. Over the trailing three years it closed 15 searches, at a 93 percent completion rate. A rate of 93 percent is the share of those files that completed. The firm's retained-corporate completion rate is 92 percent, and the two rates describe two books. The typical timeline on the Madrid line is 4 to 7 months. Median time from offer to acceptance on that line is 14 working days. Counter-offer incidence on that line is 32 percent.

11 weeks is the firm median to an accepted general-counsel offer, and it ends at acceptance. Article 400.1 notice of 30 or 60 days sits after that acceptance. An article 400.2 extension, if the contract being left actually contains one, can add as much as six months after acceptance. The Madrid line's typical timeline of 4 to 7 months is the window that already includes that kind of local delay. It is a different number from the 11-week median, and the offer letter should show both.

Where the permanent seat cannot wait on notice, interim cover is a different book. Across 60+ interim and fractional engagements since 2017, 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 covers the gap while a Portuguese notice runs. It does not shorten article 400 or article 163, and it is kept outside the 38. The product page is interim and fractional counsel.

07 — How a search runs

The same six steps. The Lisbon work is in the first one.

  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 blueprint names the employing company, whether the contract is article 81 of the bar statute, whether the title advogado is required, and whether the leaver is on 30 or 60 days, on an article 400.2 extension, or on article 163. The fee letter goes with it: 25–30 percent of total first-year compensation, 30 percent of the fee at engagement, 12 months replacement for a GC, CLO or CCO, 6 months for other in-house seats, 24 months off-limits. Mapping uses the research programme's market map of 1,480,000+ lawyers, cut to people who have held the file. The approach is blind until both sides want a conversation. A general counsel shortlist is 24 days. The method is on the methodology page. The offer is priced from Portuguese sources, with the Spain salary page kept as the neighboring table. Notice is scheduled before anyone resigns. On the Madrid line, 32 percent of files drew a counter-offer, so the replacement term is already in the letter.

08 — Published files

The clock is real. The published files are the firm book.

Seven case studies are published. Six are company-side. They are here so a buyer can see the method and the dates. The Madrid-line counts in the timeline are a separate book, and these files are the firm book.

CORPORATE BOOK · FIRM CLOCK 3 OF 7 PUBLISHED FILES

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.
Outcome
A shortlist of four reached the board on day 24. The accepted offer closed in week 11. The 12-month retention checkpoint held. The general counsel's account, used as published: "The shortlist arrived in just over three weeks and every name could already sit with our board. The person we hired is still in post two years later." Full file: GC succession, Boston.

First general counsel, venture-backed SaaS

California · one of 52 GC/CLO searches · still in post at 24 months

Mandate
The board had outgrown outside counsel. The hire was the company's first general counsel.
Complication
The right people were sitting deputy general counsel in software, not partners who wanted a title.
Outcome
Shortlist on day 24. Accepted offer in week 10. In post at the 24-month checkpoint, against a programme retention rate of 91% at 24 months. Full file: first GC, California.

Deputy general counsel, PE-backed industrial

Houston · one of 47 deputy GC / head of legal placements

Mandate
A carve-out that needed a deputy who had already lived with a transition-services clock, and who could face a public-company cadence if the sponsor listed.
Complication
The programme deputy clock is 21 days to a shortlist and 10 weeks to offer. This file was faster.
Outcome
Shortlist in 18 days. Accepted offer in week 8. Full file: deputy GC, Houston. The other published company files are a New York CCO, a legal-operations hire in Austin, and an interim GC in San Francisco. The seventh file is a law-firm partner search.

09 — Sources

What each figure is allowed to prove.

›24 sources cited on this page
  1. 1 Sartori & Partners — case studies, corporate book 400+ placements since 2017 (230+ in-house); 52 GC/CLO; 24 days and 11 weeks (range 8 to 16); 96% acceptance; 92% completion; 97% / 91% retention; fee 25–30 percent with a 30 percent retainer; 12-month and 6-month replacement; 24-month off-limits.
  2. 2 GC succession — NASDAQ-listed medtech, Boston Shortlist of four on day 24; accepted offer in week 11. The published quote from that general counsel is used verbatim.
  3. 3 First general counsel — venture-backed SaaS, California Shortlist on day 24; accepted offer in week 10; in post at 24 months.
  4. 4 Deputy general counsel — PE-backed industrial, Houston One of 47 deputy GC / head of legal placements. Programme clock 21 days and 10 weeks. This file: shortlist in 18 days, accepted offer in week 8.
  5. 5 Interim general counsel — Series C fintech, San Francisco 60+ interim engagements, outside the 230+. Median 7 days from first call to start. This file was live on day 6.
  6. 6 Sartori & Partners — Research Market map of 1,480,000+ lawyers. No separate Lisbon mapped-lawyer total is used.
  7. 7 Sartori & Partners — About Founded early 2017 by Lorenzo Sartori. Published hubs do not include Lisbon.
  8. 8 ECO — lawyer count for 2025, 1 June 2026 Frederico Pedreira. DGPJ count as reported: 37,842 lawyers inscribed in 2025, down 739 from 2024; 21,545 women; 16,297 men; 1,380 trainees. National stock, not a Lisbon headcount.
  9. 9 DGPJ — Estatísticas da Justiça 2025, 29 May 2026 The 29 May 2026 release includes the number of lawyers inscribed in the Ordem dos Advogados. The news note does not print the integer. The integer in the brief is ECO's reading of that release.
  10. 10 Pordata — lawyers, total and by sex Updated 29 May 2026. Provisional 2025 total 36,462, citing DGPJ/MJ. A different series from the ECO account. The two are not averaged. Not a Lisbon headcount.
  11. 11 Conselho Regional de Lisboa — activity report 2025 Dated 24 February 2026. Requests received in 2025: 1,431, of which 919 trainee inscriptions, 510 lawyers after the traineeship, 1 EU lawyer, and 1 immediate inscription. A flow, not a stock of Lisbon lawyers and not an in-house census.
  12. 12 Statute of the Ordem dos Advogados — consolidated Law 145/2015, as amended by Law 6/2024, in force from 1 April 2024. Article 66.1 (inscription), article 66-A (reserved court mandate and the saving for legally authorized non-members), article 70.1 (title advogado), article 73 revoked, article 81.4 and 81.5 (employment contract and void restrictions), articles 203 to 205 (EU and EEA lawyers under the home title).
  13. 13 Labour Code — article 400, notice on resignation Law 7/2009. Article 400.1: 30 days up to two years' seniority, 60 days thereafter, in writing, on an indefinite contract. Article 400.2: contract or collective instrument may raise notice to six months for administration, direction, representation or responsibility. Article 400.3: fixed term, 30 days if the contract has lasted at least six months, 15 days if shorter.
  14. 14 Labour Code — article 163, end of a comissão de serviço Either party may end the commission on written notice of 30 days if it has lasted up to two years, and 60 days if longer. Missing the notice does not stop the end. It creates a compensation duty under article 401.
  15. 15 ACT — resignation-notice simulator Labour authority restatement of the 30/60 and 15/30 clocks, and of the six-month ceiling for administration, direction, representation or responsibility. The simulator states its base as the law in force on 1 May 2023. The article text above is the authority for the periods quoted.
  16. 16 Decree-Law 139/2025 — minimum monthly pay for 2026 Guaranteed minimum of €920 a month from 1 January 2026, under article 273 of the Labour Code. A floor for all covered workers, not a lawyer scale.
  17. 17 INE — average gross monthly pay, year 2025 Highlight of 13 February 2026. 2025 average gross monthly total pay €1,694, up 5.6 percent nominal and 3.2 percent real. Regular component €1,365. Base component €1,277. All jobs, national, not lawyers and not Lisbon.
  18. 18 INE — average gross monthly pay, quarter ended June 2026 Highlight of 14 August 2026. Quarter ended June 2026: average gross monthly total pay €1,835, up 5.1 percent. Regular €1,436. Base €1,342. A later reading than the 2025 annual average. Not averaged with it.
  19. 19 EDP — 2025 annual results page Registered office Av. 24 de Julho, 12, 1249-300 Lisboa. Results for 2025 disclosed on 25 February 2026 after the Euronext close.
  20. 20 Expresso — EDP 2025 results, 25 February 2026 Account of the company's CMVM filing: net profit €1,150 million, up 44 percent; recurring net profit €1,279 million; recurring EBITDA €5,028 million, up 1 percent.
  21. 21 Galp — bylaws, text of 27 February 2026 Article 2: registered office in Lisbon, Avenida da Índia, 8. The board may move it.
  22. 22 Galp — full-year 2025 results RCA EBITDA €3,039 million for 2025. Operating cash flow €2,179 million. The English reports index dates the integrated annual report 23 March 2026.
  23. 23 Jerónimo Martins — registered office Jerónimo Martins, SGPS, S.A., Rua Actor António Silva 7, 1649-033 Lisboa. The 24 April 2025 general meeting was called at the same address.
  24. 24 Jerónimo Martins — 2025 performance overview Consolidated sales €35,991 million, up 7.6 percent, or 6.7 percent at constant exchange rates. The report text rounds the same figure to 36 billion euros.

10 — Questions

In-house counsel in Lisbon — common questions

What do in house legal recruiters Lisbon companies retain a firm to do?

In house legal recruiters Lisbon companies retain when a general counsel or a chief executive needs counsel the department does not already know. 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: a shortlist in 24 days and a median accepted offer in 11 weeks, range 8 to 16. A Lisbon brief is run on the Madrid in-house line, the nearest labelled market: 15 closed searches over three years, at a 93 percent completion rate. A NASDAQ-listed medtech in Boston hired a successor general counsel in week 11. ECO, on 1 June 2026, reported that the justice-statistics directorate counted 37,842 lawyers inscribed in Portugal in 2025.

Which Lisbon employers actually hire in-house counsel?

The readable buyers are the issuers whose own documents put the registered office in the city. EDP's 2025 results page states Av. 24 de Julho, 12, 1249-300 Lisboa, and says the 2025 results were released on 25 February 2026. Expresso, the same day, reported net profit of €1,150 million and recurring EBITDA of €5,028 million from that filing. Galp's bylaws, in the text filed as of 27 February 2026, put the registered office at Avenida da Índia, 8, Lisbon. Galp's full-year 2025 release put RCA EBITDA at €3,039 million. Jerónimo Martins' contact page and its 24 April 2025 meeting notice put the registered office at Rua Actor António Silva 7, 1649-033 Lisboa. The 2025 report put consolidated sales at €35,991 million. Private-practice context is on legal recruitment in Lisbon.

Does a Lisbon general counsel need the title advogado?

To use the title, yes. Article 70.1 of the Statute of the Ordem dos Advogados, as amended by Law 6/2024 in force from 1 April 2024, reserves the denomination advogado for lawyers with a current inscription. Article 66.1 ties the title, its use, and the acts the law reserves to lawyers, to that inscription. Article 66-A.1 reserves the court mandate to lawyers. Article 81.4 allows an employment contract, including at a company, only if it respects technical autonomy, impartiality and independence. Article 81.5 voids clauses and instructions that restrict that independence. Law 6/2024 revoked the old article 73 on subordinated practice. An EU or EEA lawyer may practice under the home title, articles 203 to 205, and court work under that title requires direction by a lawyer inscribed in Portugal.

What notice applies before a Lisbon counsel can start?

It is the notice in the contract being left. Article 400.1 of the Labour Code requires written notice of 30 days if seniority is up to two years, and 60 days if seniority is longer, on an indefinite contract. Article 400.2 lets the contract or a collective instrument raise that notice to six months for a worker in administration or direction, or with functions of representation or responsibility. Article 400.3 sets 30 or 15 days on a fixed-term contract, depending on whether the contract has lasted at least six months. On a comissão de serviço, article 163 sets 30 or 60 days by how long the commission has lasted, and a missed notice does not keep the person in the seat. The search clock, 11 weeks median across 52 general counsel searches, stops at acceptance. On the Madrid line used here, the typical timeline is 4 to 7 months.

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

Across 52 general counsel searches since 2017, the shortlist arrives in 24 days and the accepted offer in a median of 11 weeks, range 8 to 16. That clock ends at acceptance. The Madrid in-house line used for a Lisbon brief has been worked for 5 years and closed 15 searches over three years, at 93 percent completion. Its typical timeline is 4 to 7 months. Median offer-to-acceptance on that line is 14 working days. Counter-offer incidence on that line is 32 percent. The fee is 25–30 percent of total first-year compensation, with 30 percent paid at engagement. Replacement is 12 months for a GC, CLO or CCO and 6 months for other in-house searches. Offer acceptance on corporate mandates is 96%.

What should a Lisbon company use as the pay source?

No public 2026 euro table for a Lisbon general counsel was found. INE's highlight of 13 February 2026 put the 2025 average gross monthly total pay, for all jobs in Portugal, at €1,694. INE's highlight of 14 August 2026 put the average for the quarter ended June 2026 at €1,835. Decree-Law 139/2025, of 29 December, sets the guaranteed minimum at €920 a month from 1 January 2026. Those are national all-employee figures and a statutory floor. Spanish firm cash is a different country's table: lawyer salary in Spain, 2026. Other-market stage bands: general counsel salary, 2026 and in-house counsel salary, 2026.

11 — Related

The pages that sit next to this search.

Hiring in Lisbon?

Brief the contract, then the search.

Title, notice and employing entity, named before anyone is called. Retained, and scoped to the Portuguese instruments that set the start date.

Hire legal talent Talk to us

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