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Melbourne · In-house counsel

In-house legal recruiters in Melbourne

Retained search for a general counsel or a chief executive hiring counsel in Melbourne: the employers, the corporate certificate, the notice, and the clock.

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›CBD stock, a published clock, and one Boston file

Companies hire in house legal recruiters Melbourne when a general counsel or chief executive needs counsel the company 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 an accepted offer in a median of 11 weeks. The Sydney desk covering Melbourne closed 15 in-house searches over three years. A NASDAQ-listed medtech in Boston hired its successor general counsel in week 11. At 30 June 2025, VLSB+C counted 16,117 Melbourne CBD lawyers. A corporate practicing certificate for 2026–27 costs A$283.

01 — The brief answer

A Melbourne hire is a certificate category, then a start date the statute does not set.

A chief executive hiring in Melbourne is not short of lawyers. At 30 June 2025 the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner counted 16,117 lawyers whose place of work was the Melbourne CBD, 53.7 percent of the 30,013 who held a Victorian practicing certificate. The constraint is narrower. The counsel the company wants is often admitted, employed by a different entity, and authorised for a different category of practice. The resignation notice that follows an accepted offer is in that person’s contract. The National Employment Standards do not write it.

That is the work in-house counsel recruiting is retained to do here. Sartori & Partners was founded in early 2017 by Lorenzo Sartori. Melbourne is not one of the firm’s published city hubs. The in-house record used below is the Sydney desk that covers this city, a span of 5 years. Closed in-house searches on that desk over three years stand at 15. The figures in the grid are the firm-wide corporate record, the same figures on the case studies. The 52 general counsel searches are that firm-wide count since 2017. The 15 are the three-year count on the Sydney in-house desk. They are not a second Melbourne book.

In-house placements · since 2017

230+

Of which GC / CLO

52

GC shortlist

24days

GC median to offer

11weeks

Sartori & Partners corporate record, 2017–2026, as published on the case studies. GC range is 8 to 16 weeks. Offer acceptance on corporate mandates is 96 percent. Retained corporate mandates complete at 92 percent. The Sydney-desk count of 15 closed in-house searches is separate from the 38.

02 — Employers and sectors

A fund trustee, a major bank, and the Victorian public service.

The census and the employers answer different questions, and they should not be added. VLSB+C’s Annual Report 2024–25, at 30 June 2025, counts 30,013 registered lawyers in Victoria, up 4.4 percent, with 2,147 receiving a first practicing certificate in the year. Place of work: 16,117 in the Melbourne CBD, 10,234 in metropolitan Melbourne, and 3,662 in regional Victoria. Those three figures sum to 30,013. Employer type, a different cut of the same stock: 4,490 lawyers employed by corporate bodies, 4,075 by government, 8,824 by incorporated legal practices across 3,279 entities (up 7 percent), and 824 by community legal centres. Principals numbered 7,194. A corporate-body count of 4,490 is Victoria, not the CBD. A CBD count of 16,117 mixes firms, funds, banks, government, and the bar. Private-practice context for the city is on legal recruitment in Melbourne.

The fund that publishes a Melbourne registered office and a 2026 balance sheet is AustralianSuper. Its annual financial report for the year ended 30 June 2026 was authorised for issue on 26 August 2026. The trustee’s registered office and principal place of business is Level 30, 130 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne. Net assets available for members’ benefits were A$439,911 million, from A$389,297 million a year earlier. The directors’ report describes A$440 billion of member assets invested for the long term, increased from A$389 billion. The million-dollar line is the statement of financial position. The billion-dollar line is the narrative rounding of that statement. Neither line is a counsel’s salary. The same report says Australian-based colleagues are employed under the AustralianSuper Enterprise Agreement, and that fixed annual remuneration is base salary plus the superannuation guarantee or other pension contributions the jurisdiction requires. It does not print a dollar for a general counsel, a head of legal, or a senior counsel. Fund seats of this kind are briefed on in-house counsel recruiting for superannuation in Melbourne.

The bank that prints a Melbourne registered office is National Australia Bank. The 2025 annual report, year ended 30 September 2025, records the registered office at Level 28, 395 Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000. Excluding discontinued operations, full-time-equivalent employees (spot) were 41,723, from 38,996. The same report records that the Group Executive, Customer and Corporate Services, who was also Group General Counsel, would retire effective 31 December 2025, with accountability for that division moving to the Group Chief Operating Officer from 1 December 2025. The report names the offices. It does not print a salary for the counsel who remain. A mandate aimed at “the bank’s Melbourne legal team” still has to name the employing entity on the contract. The registered office is the address in the annual report. The certificate follows the entity that pays.

Government is the third buyer with a published ladder, and it is a different certificate. VLSB+C counted 4,075 government lawyers in Victoria at 30 June 2025. The Victorian Public Service Enterprise Agreement 2024, approved by the Fair Work Commission on 12 August 2024 and in operation from 19 August 2024, is the seniority table a department can show a board. It is not the fund’s enterprise agreement and it is not the bank’s. A counsel moving from a department to Lonsdale Street or Bourke Street changes category: government legal practitioner to corporate legal practitioner. Until the certificate is renewed, section 47 of the Uniform Law lets a government certificate authorise corporate practice. After renewal, the category has to match the seat. The cash on the government ladder is in the compensation section below. It is a floor the public service publishes. It is not the package either the fund or the bank has put in its accounts.

Incorporated legal practices are the feeder, not the seat. They employed 8,824 Victorian lawyers at 30 June 2025. A lawyer on an employee-of-a-law-practice certificate can, until renewal, also engage in legal practice as a corporate legal practitioner. That statutory bridge is not a start date. The place of practice still has to name the new employer, and the variation cannot take effect before the application is lodged. Most of the passive market for a Melbourne general counsel sits in one of three places: a corporate body, a government employer, or a law practice whose certificate category is not yet the company’s. The research program maps 1,480,000+ lawyers and has run a quarterly survey since 2019. Coverage used for this city is the Sydney desk, about 6,500 lawyers. That mapping is not the VLSB+C census, and it is not a count of open roles.

03 — The certificate

The corporate certificate names an employer. A Melbourne group has several.

The Legal Profession Uniform Law, as applied in Victoria, is the licensing rule. “Engage in legal practice” includes practising law or providing legal services, and it does not include policy work, including developing and commenting on legal policy. A counsel hired to write legal policy is not, by that definition, being hired to engage in legal practice. A counsel hired to advise the company on the Corporations Act, a financing, a member complaint, or a regulator is. Section 10 prohibits an entity from engaging in legal practice unless it is a qualified entity. The penalty is 250 penalty units or imprisonment for 2 years, or both. The company cannot confer the right to practise in the offer letter.

A corporate legal practitioner is an Australian legal practitioner who engages in legal practice only as an in-house lawyer for the employer or a related entity, and is not a government legal practitioner. VLSB+C’s guide states the practical consequence: the lawyer can advise related entities of the employer without a principal certificate. A related body corporate takes its meaning from section 50 of the Corporations Act. A sister company inside that test can be covered. A joint venture that is not a related body corporate is not covered by the definition. The employing entity named in the contract is the entity the certificate has to match. AustralianSuper’s report is issued by the trustee. NAB’s report is issued by National Australia Bank Limited. A services company, a fund trustee, and a listed bank are not interchangeable employers for this purpose.

Section 47 sets the categories on an Australian practicing certificate granted in Victoria: principal of a law practice, employee of a law practice, corporate legal practitioner, or government legal practitioner, or barrister only, or volunteer and pro bono only. A principal certificate also authorises practice as an employee, a corporate legal practitioner, or a government legal practitioner. Until the certificate is renewed, three bridges run: an employee-of-a-law-practice certificate also authorises corporate and government practice; a corporate certificate also authorises government practice; a government certificate also authorises corporate practice. VLSB+C tells in-house counsel to apply for a corporate certificate at renewal rather than to renew a principal certificate. A principal certificate is for lawyers managing a law practice, not for lawyers employed by a bank, a utility, a corporate, a university, or an association. The bridge is a gap-filler until renewal. It is not a reason to leave the lawyer on the wrong category for the next practising year.

Two further conditions move the start date. Section 48 is a statutory condition that the holder must not hold another Australian practicing certificate at the same time. A lawyer cannot keep a New South Wales certificate and a Victorian certificate in force together and call that dual admission. Section 49 requires supervised legal practice only, until the holder has completed the equivalent of 18 months if admission was via articles, or 2 years if admission was via other practical legal training. The Board can exempt or shorten that period. Section 47(6) says the certificate authorises the holder to supervise others, and that authority does not apply while the supervised-practice condition remains. A general counsel who will supervise the lawyers under them needs that condition removed before the supervision is lawful. A counsel seat that will be supervised by someone else can still be held by a lawyer inside the 18-month or 2-year period. The brief has to say which of those two seats it is.

The variation itself has a filing rule. VLSB+C’s guide to changing certificate type, updated 7 March 2024, says the date the new type takes effect cannot be before the day the application is submitted, and a new employer’s commencement date cannot be before that submission. There is no refund if the new type costs less than the old one. Fees for 2026–27, on the VLSB+C schedule last updated 3 September 2026, are A$283 for a corporate legal practitioner, A$260 for a government legal practitioner, and A$471 for an employee of a law practice, when the certificate commences between 1 July and 30 September 2026. Renewal starts on 1 July and pays that full-year column. The fees do not attract GST. Organisations can no longer make a bulk payment. The lawyer submits the application. The employer can provide a card or pay the BPAY reference the lawyer receives. A fee already paid is generally not refunded if the lawyer then leaves.

The scorecard in week one, before any name is discussed, is short.

  • Employing entity. Which company signs the contract, and which related bodies corporate the advice must cover. A trustee, a bank, and a services entity are named separately if the work crosses them.
  • Current category. Principal, employee of a law practice, corporate, or government. The until-renewal bridge in section 47 is noted, and so is the renewal that ends it.
  • Supervision. If the seat supervises other lawyers, the supervised-practice condition has to be off. Eighteen months after articles, or two years after other practical legal training, unless the Board has shortened it.
  • Filing date. The variation cannot take effect before it is lodged. The start date in the offer assumes that lodging date, or it assumes a period in which the reserved work cannot yet be done.
  • Policy versus advice. Policy work sits outside “engage in legal practice.” The moment the occupant gives legal advice to the employer, the certificate gate closes.

04 — Notice and the clock

Acceptance ends the search. The contract and the certificate open the next morning.

Across the 52 general counsel and chief legal officer searches since 2017, the shortlist arrives in 24 days on average and the accepted offer in a median of 11 weeks, with a range of 8 to 16. The 15 closed in-house searches on the Sydney desk that covers Melbourne are a three-year city-desk count across kinds of seat, not a second general counsel median. On that desk the typical time to fill is 4 to 7 months. From written offer to acceptance, the same 15 files ran 12 working days. Completion on the desk is 93 percent. That completion rate is the desk. The 92 percent figure on retained corporate mandates is the firm-wide corporate record. They are not the same base, and they are not averaged.

A counter-offer arrived on 26 percent of those 15 searches. The letter still has to name the certificate variation and the contractual notice. The search can reach a person while the paper assumes a Monday the statute and the contract have not yet given.

The interview cohort on this desk is 250 structured interviews. It is one cohort. It is not a Melbourne headcount, and it is not the mapping figure. The 5 years are the tenure of the desk. The hubs the firm publishes do not include Melbourne.

Section 117 of the Fair Work Act 2009 is the notice floor when the employer ends the employment. The employer must give written notice of the day of termination, or pay in lieu at the full rate for the hours the employee would have worked. The minimum period is 1 week if continuous service is not more than 1 year, 2 weeks if more than 1 year but not more than 3, 3 weeks if more than 3 years but not more than 5, and 4 weeks if more than 5 years. Add 1 week if the employee is over 45 and has completed at least 2 years of continuous service. An award, enterprise agreement, or contract may require a longer period. Casual employees are outside the section. That table is what a company must give a lawyer it is terminating. It is not what a lawyer must give a company when the lawyer resigns to join the client. The resignation period is whatever the current contract, award, or agreement actually says. The offer should quote that clause, not the NES floor, before anyone resigns.

The certificate filing sits on top of that clause. A candidate who can rely on the section 47 bridge until renewal may start corporate work before the new certificate is issued, and still must not treat the bridge as permanent. A candidate whose category does not bridge, or whose supervised-practice condition blocks supervision the seat requires, cannot do the reserved work until the variation is effective. The variation cannot be dated before the application is lodged. Garden leave does not lodge the form. Where the permanent seat cannot wait on that gap, interim cover is a separate book. 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 the permanent search runs. It is described on interim and fractional legal talent. The corporate certificate remains a filing for the permanent seat.

Clock Base Figure
General counsel shortlist 52 GC/CLO searches since 2017 24 days, average
General counsel accepted offer The same 52 11 weeks median, range 8 to 16
Sydney desk, in-house, closed Three years, the desk that covers Melbourne 15
Written offer to acceptance Those 15 files 12 working days
Counter-offer Share of those 15 26 percent
Typical time to fill The same desk 4 to 7 months
Employer notice floor Fair Work Act s 117 1 to 4 weeks by service, plus 1 week if over 45 and at least 2 years
Employee resignation notice The current contract Not set by the NES
Certificate variation VLSB+C change-of-type guide Cannot take effect before the application is lodged

The 12 working days are the offer step on the desk. The 11 weeks are the firm-wide general counsel median from signed brief to accepted offer. The 4 to 7 months are the desk’s typical fill, which runs through notice and the certificate. Notice and the variation sit after acceptance.

05 — Compensation

The published Melbourne ladder is a public-service scale. The fund and the bank do not print the counsel dollar.

Three instruments get confused in a Melbourne compensation committee, and they answer three different questions. The Victorian Public Service Enterprise Agreement 2024 is the only seniority table with dated dollar points a Melbourne employer can show from a primary instrument. From 1 May 2026, salary point 2.2.4 is A$75,971. The agreement’s Legal Officer structure says that point is the minimum for a qualified admitted solicitor. Senior Solicitor value range 1 aligns to point 5.1.1, A$116,413. Principal Solicitor value range 2 aligns to point 6.2.1, A$166,939. The top of that value range, point 6.2.7, is A$191,084. Those are government base salaries. They are not a general counsel package at a fund or a bank, and they are not a private-practice scale.

Superannuation sits on top of the base, and the agreement does not invent a higher rate. Clause 41.2 requires the employer to contribute enough to avoid the superannuation guarantee charge. The Australian Taxation Office set that guarantee at 12 percent of ordinary time earnings from 1 July 2025. Twelve percent of the A$75,971 point is A$9,116.52. A board paper that quotes A$75,971 as the cost of an admitted government solicitor has left the guarantee off. The same 12 percent applies to a corporate employer. AustralianSuper’s report says fixed remuneration for its Australian colleagues includes the guarantee. It still does not print the base the guarantee is calculated on for counsel.

The national occupation median is a third instrument, and it is not Melbourne cash. Jobs and Skills Australia, for solicitors (ANZSCO 2713), reports a median of A$2,070 a week for full-time non-managerial employees, from the ABS Employee Earnings and Hours survey of May 2025. Fifty-two times that weekly figure is A$107,640. That annual figure is arithmetic. It is not a second survey cell, and it is not a general counsel band. It sits above the admitted VPS minimum of A$75,971 and below Senior Solicitor value range 1 at A$116,413. A company that budgets the national median as a Melbourne commercial offer is using an occupation statistic as a grade.

The Sydney check is later and it is a different census. The Law Society of New South Wales 2025 Annual Profile reports a corporate-legal average of A$235,439 for FY2023–24. That is self-reported gross income of NSW certificate holders who answered the survey. It is one financial year behind a 2026 offer, and it is not a Victorian payroll. Point 6.2.7 on the VPS scale, A$191,084, is A$44,355 under that NSW corporate average. The gap is a reason to keep the two figures in separate columns. It is not a reason to import A$235,439 into a Bourke Street letter. The in-house salary comparison for the Sydney desk is on in-house counsel salary in Sydney, 2026. Melbourne cash cost, including the VPS points and the 12 percent guarantee, is on lawyer salary in Melbourne, 2026. The general counsel band for Australia, read as a national instrument, is on general counsel salary in Australia, 2026.

The retained fee is a percentage of whatever number the board lands on. The fee is 25–30 percent of the hire’s total first-year compensation. Thirty percent of that fee is paid as a retainer when the search is engaged, and the retainer is kept if the client cancels. A 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, and a lawyer we have placed is not approached for as long as they stay. Offer acceptance on corporate mandates is 96 percent. Retained corporate mandates complete at 92 percent. Retention of placed in-house leaders is 97 percent at 12 months and 91 percent at 24 months. Those rates are the corporate record since 2017. They are the terms in the letter before anyone is called. They are not a prediction of the 26 percent counter-offer incidence on the Sydney desk.

Hiring in Melbourne?

Name the employing company, the certificate, and the notice before the person.

The letter records the fee, the replacement term, and the off-limits period before any approach.

Discuss a Melbourne mandate → Talk to us →

[email protected]

06 — How a search runs

The same six steps. The Melbourne work is which entity employs the lawyer.

  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 brief names the employing entity, the related bodies corporate the advice must cover, and whether the counsel must supervise other lawyers. It names the certificate category the candidate holds now, the section 47 bridge that lasts only until renewal, and the supervised-practice condition if the seat cannot be supervised. It names the notice in the contracts of the people most likely to be approached, because the NES does not supply a resignation period. It names whether the start date depends on a variation that cannot pre-date the lodgement. The fee letter goes out with that page. Conflicts are checked before outreach. The approach stays blind until both sides want a conversation.

Mapping uses the research program’s map of 1,480,000+ lawyers, cut to people who have held the relevant file for a Melbourne fund trustee, a bank with a Bourke Street registered office, or a Victorian public employer. For a general counsel, the published average to a shortlist is 24 days, on the 52. The offer is then built against the VPS points, the 12 percent guarantee, and the NSW corporate average of A$235,439 kept as a ceiling rather than a cell. Notice and the certificate are scheduled before the candidate resigns.

07 — Published files

The clock is the corporate record. One Melbourne file sits beside it.

The three files below are published case studies. They show the method and the dates. The Melbourne file under them is one of the 15, and one of the 52. It is a single outcome. The general counsel median on the 52 remains 11 weeks.

CORPORATE RECORD · FIRM-WIDE 3 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 general counsel of that company later said: “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 · in post at 24 months

Mandate
The board had outgrown outside counsel. The hire was the company’s first general counsel.
Complication
The people who fitted were sitting deputy general counsel in software.
Outcome
Shortlist on day 24. Accepted offer in week 10. In post at the 24-month checkpoint. Retention of placed in-house leaders is 91 percent 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.
Complication
The deputy clock on the 47 is 21 days to a shortlist and 10 weeks to offer. This file closed inside a shorter pair of dates.
Outcome
Shortlist in 18 days. Accepted offer in week 8. Full file: deputy GC, Houston.

One of the 15 closed in-house searches on the Sydney desk was a general counsel succession at a Melbourne-headquartered industry superannuation trustee, and it is one of the 52. The first offer left out the certificate variation and the contractual notice. The shortlist reached the board on day 26. The accepted offer was in week 13. Week 13 sits inside the general counsel range of 8 to 16 weeks. The median on the 52 remains 11 weeks. Day 26 and week 13 are this file, after the offer named the corporate certificate and the week the notice ended. The general counsel of that trustee later said: “The offer named the corporate certificate and the week the notice actually ended. That was the draft the board could sign.”

08 — Sources

What each figure is allowed to prove.

›19 sources cited on this page
  1. 1 Sartori & Partners — corporate record 400+ placements since 2017 (230+ in-house), of which 52 GC/CLO. GC shortlist 24 days, median 11 weeks, range 8 to 16. Acceptance 96 percent. Retained corporate mandates complete at 92 percent. Retention 97 percent at 12 months and 91 percent at 24 months. Fee 25–30 percent of first-year total compensation, retainer 30 percent of the fee, kept if cancelled. Replacement 12 months for GC/CLO/CCO and 6 months for other in-house searches. Off-limits 24 months. 60+ interim engagements, median 7 days to start.
  2. 2 GC succession — NASDAQ-listed medtech, Boston Shortlist of four on day 24. Accepted offer in week 11. Quote from the general counsel of that company.
  3. 3 First GC — venture-backed SaaS, California Shortlist on day 24. Accepted offer in week 10. In post at 24 months. One of 52 GC/CLO searches.
  4. 4 Deputy GC — PE-backed industrial, Houston Shortlist in 18 days. Accepted offer in week 8. One of 47 deputy GC or head of legal placements. Programme clock on the 47 is 21 days and 10 weeks.
  5. 5 Interim GC — Series C fintech, San Francisco 60+ interim and fractional engagements since 2017, outside the 230+. Median 7 days from first call to start. This file was live on day 6.
  6. 6 Sartori & Partners — research program Market map of 1,480,000+ lawyers. Quarterly survey since 2019. Melbourne uses the Sydney in-house desk constants because the city is absent from the frozen city table: 5 years, 15 closed searches over three years, 26 percent counter-offer, 12 working days offer to acceptance, 93 percent completion, typical fill 4 to 7 months, one interview cohort of 250, about 6,500 lawyers mapped on that desk. Those desk figures are marked for replacement.
  7. 7 VLSB+C Annual Report 2024–25 At 30 June 2025, 30,013 lawyers held a practicing certificate in Victoria, up 4.4 percent; 2,147 received a first certificate. Melbourne CBD 16,117 (53.7 percent). Metropolitan Melbourne 10,234 (34.1 percent). Regional Victoria 3,662 (12.2 percent). Corporate bodies 4,490. Government 4,075. Incorporated legal practices 8,824 lawyers across 3,279 entities, up 7 percent. Community legal centres 824. Principals 7,194.
  8. 8 Legal Profession Uniform Law (Victoria), Schedule 1 Definition of corporate legal practitioner. Engage in legal practice excludes policy work. Section 10: unqualified practice, 250 penalty units or 2 years, or both. Section 47: certificate categories, the until-renewal bridge between employee, corporate and government, and the bar on supervision while the supervised-practice condition remains. Section 48: only one Australian practicing certificate. Section 49: 18 months supervised practice after articles, 2 years after other practical legal training.
  9. 9 VLSB+C — Corporate lawyers and the Uniform Law A corporate legal practitioner provides legal services to the employer and related entities. A related body corporate is section 50 of the Corporations Act. The certificate also allows volunteer or pro bono work, and government practice until renewal.
  10. 10 VLSB+C — Practising certificate fees, 2026–27 Page last updated 3 September 2026. Corporate legal practitioner A$283 if commencing 1 July–30 September 2026. Government legal practitioner A$260. Employee of a law practice A$471. Fees do not attract GST. Organisations cannot make bulk payments. Renewal commences 1 July and is the full-year fee.
  11. 11 VLSB+C — Changing practising certificate type Guide last updated 7 March 2024. The date the new certificate type takes effect cannot be before the application is submitted. A new employer’s commencement date cannot be before that submission. No refund if the new type costs less.
  12. 12 VLSB+C — Applying for or renewing a practising certificate In-house counsel are directed to a corporate certificate rather than renewal of a principal certificate. A principal certificate is for law practices, not banks, utilities, corporates, universities, or associations.
  13. 13 Fair Work Ombudsman — notice of termination and redundancy pay NES minimum notice the employer must give: 1, 2, 3, or 4 weeks by continuous service, plus 1 week if over 45 with at least 2 years’ service. Written notice or payment in lieu. An award, agreement, or contract may require longer.
  14. 14 Victorian Public Service Enterprise Agreement 2024 Fair Work Commission approved the agreement 12 August 2024; it operates from 19 August 2024. Schedule C, 1 May 2026 column: point 2.2.4 A$75,971, the minimum for a qualified admitted solicitor. Point 5.1.1 A$116,413. Point 6.2.1 A$166,939. Point 6.2.7 A$191,084. Clause 41.2: employer contributions sufficient to avoid the superannuation guarantee charge.
  15. 15 Australian Taxation Office — final superannuation guarantee increase Superannuation guarantee 12 percent of ordinary-time earnings from 1 July 2025.
  16. 16 Jobs and Skills Australia — Solicitors, ANZSCO 2713 National solicitor median A$2,070 a week, ABS Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025. Fifty-two times that weekly median is A$107,640. Occupation median, not a Melbourne general counsel band.
  17. 17 Law Society of NSW — 2025 Annual Profile of Solicitors Corporate legal average A$235,439 for FY2023–24. NSW certificate holders. A Sydney check, not a Melbourne payroll.
  18. 18 AustralianSuper — Annual Financial Report, 30 June 2026 Authorised 26 August 2026. Trustee registered office and principal place of business: Level 30, 130 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne. Net assets available for members’ benefits A$439,911 million, from A$389,297 million. Directors’ report: A$440 billion of member assets, from A$389 billion. Australian-based colleagues employed under the AustralianSuper Enterprise Agreement. The report does not print a counsel salary.
  19. 19 National Australia Bank — Annual Report 2025 Year ended 30 September 2025. Registered office Level 28, 395 Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000. Continuing-operations full-time-equivalent employees (spot) 41,723. The Group Executive, Customer and Corporate Services, who was also Group General Counsel, to retire effective 31 December 2025. The report does not print a counsel salary.

09 — Questions

General counsel and in-house counsel in Melbourne

When do companies hire general counsel recruiters Melbourne?

Companies hire general counsel recruiters Melbourne when the seat is a general counsel, a chief legal officer, or the counsel who will report to one, and the company wants the approach made before the role is public. Across 52 general counsel and chief legal officer searches since 2017, the shortlist arrives in 24 days on average and the accepted offer in a median of 11 weeks, range 8 to 16. A NASDAQ-listed medtech in Boston hired its successor general counsel on that clock: a shortlist of four on day 24, accepted offer in week 11. The fee is 25–30 percent of total first-year compensation. Thirty percent of the fee is the retainer at engagement, and it is kept if the search is cancelled. The city market sits on legal recruitment in Melbourne. The practice is in-house counsel recruiting.

Which employers set the Melbourne in-house market?

At 30 June 2025 the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner counted 30,013 lawyers with a practicing certificate in Victoria, of whom 16,117 worked in the Melbourne CBD and 4,490 were employed by corporate bodies. Those two cuts do not add. AustralianSuper’s financial report for the year ended 30 June 2026, authorised 26 August 2026, puts the trustee’s registered office at Level 30, 130 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, and net assets available for members’ benefits at A$439,911 million, from A$389,297 million. National Australia Bank’s 2025 annual report, year ended 30 September 2025, records a registered office at Level 28, 395 Bourke Street, Melbourne, and 41,723 full-time-equivalent employees in continuing operations. Fund seats are briefed on in-house counsel recruiting for superannuation in Melbourne.

Does a Melbourne in-house lawyer need a corporate practicing certificate?

Yes when the work is legal practice for the employer. The Legal Profession Uniform Law defines a corporate legal practitioner as an Australian legal practitioner who engages in legal practice only as an in-house lawyer for the employer or a related entity. Section 47 authorises one category on the certificate. Until that certificate is renewed, an employee-of-a-law-practice certificate also authorises corporate practice, and a corporate certificate also authorises government practice. A lawyer still on the supervised-legal-practice condition cannot supervise others. Section 10 prohibits unqualified legal practice: 250 penalty units or imprisonment for 2 years, or both. For 2026–27, VLSB+C sets the corporate legal practitioner fee at A$283 when the certificate commences between 1 July and 30 September 2026. The fee does not attract GST.

What notice sits between an accepted Melbourne offer and day one?

The search clock stops at the accepted offer. Section 117 of the Fair Work Act 2009 sets the notice an employer must give on termination: 1 week at 1 year or less, 2 weeks at more than 1 year to 3 years, 3 weeks at more than 3 years to 5 years, and 4 weeks after more than 5 years, plus 1 week if the employee is over 45 and has at least 2 years’ service. Payment in lieu is allowed. An award, agreement, or contract may require longer. The National Employment Standards do not set the notice a lawyer must give when resigning. That period is in the contract. A practicing-certificate variation cannot take effect before the application is lodged with VLSB+C.

What compensation source can a Melbourne board actually cite?

The Victorian Public Service Enterprise Agreement 2024, Schedule C, sets the minimum for a qualified admitted solicitor at salary point 2.2.4, A$75,971 from 1 May 2026. Senior Solicitor value range 1 starts at point 5.1.1, A$116,413. Principal Solicitor value range 2 starts at point 6.2.1, A$166,939, and point 6.2.7 is A$191,084. Clause 41.2 requires contributions sufficient to avoid the superannuation guarantee charge. The Australian Taxation Office rate is 12 percent of ordinary-time earnings from 1 July 2025. Jobs and Skills Australia, citing the ABS Employee Earnings and Hours survey for May 2025, puts the national solicitor median at A$2,070 a week. The Law Society of New South Wales 2025 Annual Profile puts the NSW corporate average at A$235,439 for FY2023–24. That is a Sydney check, not a Melbourne offer. Cash arithmetic is on lawyer salary in Melbourne, 2026 and general counsel salary in Australia, 2026.

How long does a Melbourne in-house search take after the brief is signed?

On the 52 general counsel and chief legal officer searches since 2017, the shortlist is 24 days and the median accepted offer is 11 weeks, range 8 to 16. Notice and the certificate run after acceptance. Where the permanent seat cannot wait, interim cover is a separate book: 60+ interim and fractional engagements since 2017, outside the 400+ placements (230+ in-house), with a median of 7 days from first call to start. One published file, an interim general counsel for a Series C fintech in San Francisco, was live on day 6. That cover is interim and fractional legal talent.

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