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Rome · In-house counsel

In-house legal recruiters in Rome

Retained search for a general counsel or a chief executive hiring counsel who already works in the capital: the Treasury portfolio, the special list, the managers' contract, and the clock.

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›The Rome hire, the published clock, and one cash figure

in house legal recruiters Rome are retained when a general counsel or chief executive needs counsel employed in the city. Sartori & Partners has completed 400+ placements since 2017 (230+ in-house), including 52 general counsel searches and 19 closed Rome in-house searches over three years. A shortlist takes 24 days and an accepted offer a median of 11 weeks. A NASDAQ-listed medtech in Boston hired a successor general counsel in week 11. ERI, as of 2 October 2026, puts average Rome general counsel gross pay at 110,098 euro.

01 — The brief answer

A Rome seat is one of three legal positions. The brief usually names two of them at once.

A chief executive in Rome writes one description and means three jobs. The description asks for an avvocato, a general counsel, and someone who can still plead. Those are different legal positions. The person who can sign a pleading for a ministry or an authority may be on the special list. The person who can sign an employment contract as general counsel of a listed group comes off the practicing roll. The person who can run a golden-power file, a concession, and the board pack is usually already inside another company in the city, and is not answering a posting.

That is the hiring problem in-house counsel recruiting is retained to solve here. Lorenzo Sartori founded the firm in Italy in early 2017. Rome is a search market on that book. It is not one of the published hubs. The research map covers 1,480,000+ lawyers. The four figures below are the corporate book, the same figures on the case studies. They are the clock a Rome file is run against. They are not a claim that all 52 general counsel sit in Rome. The Rome in-house line, over three years, is 19 closed searches.

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 Rome-only count. GC range is 8 to 16 weeks. Offer acceptance on corporate mandates is 96%.

02 — Who hires

The employer that opens a Rome brief is usually the State, or a company the State still controls.

ISTAT's release of 25 February 2026, covering the 2023 account, is the perimeter a general counsel search in this city has to start from. The publicly participated universe was 8,323 units, employing 962,748 people. Inside that total, 5,756 enterprises active in industry and services employed 922,138 people. Restricting the count to enterprises under public control leaves 3,546 enterprises and 601,600 employees. The Ministry of Economy and Finance is the main controller of that narrower set: 13.9 percent of the controlled enterprises and 53.2 percent of their employees. Value added of the publicly controlled enterprises was above 70 billion euro, 6.5 percent of industry and services. None of those counts is a count of legal departments, and none of them sits entirely in Rome. Local authorities account for a large share of the enterprises. The share that produces a Rome in-house seat is the part controlled by the ministry.

The Osservatorio CPI at Università Cattolica, reading that ISTAT account, puts enterprises controlled by the ministry, directly or through companies it controls, at 492, with 319,944 employees. In 2013 the same cut was 328 enterprises and 363,510 employees: more companies, fewer people. The same note counts 40 companies the ministry holds directly, and only 6 of them listed: Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Enav, Enel, Eni, Leonardo and Poste Italiane. At 1 February 2026 the ministry's stakes in those six were worth 47 billion euro, equal to 18.4 percent of the companies' combined market capitalization. On that dated table the ministry's direct shares were 4.9 percent of Monte dei Paschi, 53.3 percent of Enav, 23.6 percent of Enel, 2.2 percent of Eni, 30.2 percent of Leonardo and 29.3 percent of Poste Italiane. Siena is not a Rome payroll. The other five are the names a Rome general counsel search meets.

Under the six listed names sits a second group that does not have ordinary shares on the exchange and does issue listed instruments: Amco, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Ferrovie dello Stato, Invitalia, Rai and Sace. The Osservatorio records the ministry at 82.8 percent of CDP, banking foundations at 15.9 percent, and treasury shares at 1.3 percent, and puts the ministry's stakes in that unlisted group at just under 40 billion euro. CDP is the vehicle through which a large part of the indirect portfolio is held. Private-practice context for the city sits on legal recruitment in Rome. The company-side question is which of these employers is writing the employment contract.

A legal department inside that perimeter spends the year on concessions, regulated tariffs, public-procurement challenges, and transactions the Presidency of the Council can still call in. In 2025 the Presidency received 1,081 golden-power notifications and pre-notifications, against 835 in 2024, according to the government's report to Parliament. Of the 2025 total, 903 were notifications and 178 were pre-notifications. Notifications were about 37 percent higher than in 2024. Files under article 2 of Decree-Law 21/2012, covering energy, transport, communications and the newer strategic sectors, were above 80 percent of the flow: 723 notifications and 163 pre-notifications. On the notification split in the same report, defense and public order accounted for 28.3 percent and energy for 9 percent. Special powers were exercised in 46 cases. Two proceedings ended in an opposition. Twenty-nine notifications drew conditions or prescriptions. Four hundred and four notifications were closed by the coordination group without the powers being exercised. That volume is why a Rome general counsel search so often asks for someone who has already filed the notice.

The bar roll is the wrong headcount for that question. Cassa Forense counted 25,089 active lawyers at the Ordine di Roma in 2023, of whom 11,205 were women and 13,884 were men, down from 25,199 in 2022. Those 25,089 are enrolled to practice. A general counsel on a subordinate contract at Enel or Poste is not in that number. A lawyer on the Article 23 special list, inside a ministry or an authority, is a slice of it. Using the whole roll as the size of the in-house market points the brief at people who cannot take the company job without coming off the roll.

What the figure counts Number Date What it is not
Publicly participated units, Italy 8,323, employing 962,748 2023, ISTAT 25 February 2026 Not a count of general counsel, and not all in Rome
Industry and services enterprises participated 5,756, employing 922,138 Same release Includes minority stakes. Not the controlled subset
Publicly controlled enterprises 3,546, employing 601,600 Same release MEF controls 13.9 percent of these enterprises and 53.2 percent of their employees
Enterprises controlled by the MEF 492, employing 319,944 2023, Osservatorio CPI Direct and indirect. Not one legal department each
MEF direct holdings, of which listed 40, of which 6 Stakes worth 47 billion euro at 1 February 2026 Monte dei Paschi is on the list and is not a Rome payroll
Golden-power notifications and pre-notifications 1,081 Calendar 2025 903 notifications and 178 pre-notifications. Not a count of counsel hired

Enterprise counts are ISTAT's 25 February 2026 release of the 2023 account, and the Osservatorio CPI's reading of the ministry's share of it. The golden-power total is the government's report to Parliament for 2025.

03 — Licensing

The special list is real in Rome. It is the wrong list for almost every company that calls.

Law No. 247 of 31 December 2012 still draws the line. Article 18(1)(d), in the Consiglio Nazionale Forense consolidated text, makes practicing as an avvocato incompatible with any subordinate employment, even part-time. Article 23 is the exception a Rome brief keeps reaching for. Lawyers of a legal office specifically established at a public body, with exclusive stable charge of that body's legal affairs, are entered on a special list annexed to the roll. A counsel parked in a unit that also runs the board secretariat does not meet that test. A listed company does not meet it either.

The companies a chief executive actually means usually fail the test for a different reason. The Consiglio Nazionale Forense, in parere of 12 June 2024, no. 27, was asked whether counsel at Poste Italiane, Eni, Terna, Snam, Italgas, Fincantieri, Saipem and Simest could use the special list because the State sits above them through Cassa Depositi e Prestiti. The answer was no. CDP is a private-law company. A portfolio company it controls is not, for Article 23, prevalently owned by public bodies. Poste and Terna are names on that list whose in-house work is briefed from Rome. Their general counsel is a giurista d'impresa. The giurista gives advice to that one group, does not stay on the practicing roll, and does not sign the pleading. Court work stays with external avvocati, or with the Avvocatura dello Stato when the client is the administration itself.

Law No. 137 of 28 July 2026 delegated the Government to rewrite this ordinamento. Normattiva records entry into force on 16 August 2026 and a term of six months for the legislative decrees, which ends on 16 February 2027. The new incompatibility rules are not operative merely because the delegation is in force. Until the decrees are adopted, a Rome offer is written under Law 247. A board that delays a hire until the reform settles the roll is waiting on a text that does not yet govern the contract.

The scorecard in week one is which of the three positions the entity can actually offer. A ministry, an independent authority, or another public body with a stable legal office can hire onto the special list, and the contract has to say so. A listed or unlisted company, including a company the ministry controls through CDP, hires a giurista. It does not hire an avvocato who will keep pleading. Of 400 structured interviews on the Rome in-house line over three years, 140 were with a sitting general counsel or head of legal. Of those 140, 91 described a giurista seat on which the practicing roll was not required, 27 described an Article 23 office, and 22 described a brief written as if both were possible. Those three groups are the whole of the 140. They are interview answers, not closed searches. On 4 of the 8 closed general-counsel or head-of-legal searches, the first draft asked for an avvocato who would stay enrolled and also plead. Those 4 were rescoped before outreach. They sit inside the 8, and that group sits inside the 19.

A head of legal at a listed utility in Rome described the letter that finally worked: The range was in the letter, and nobody asked what I earn now. The 22 briefs that asked for both jobs are the finding that cuts the other way. They are a real share of the 140, and they are the drafts that have to be rewritten before anyone is called.

04 — Compensation

The survey, the contract floor, and the cap are three different instruments.

ERI's SalaryExpert page for a general counsel in Rome, an employer survey as of 2 October 2026, states average gross pay of 110,098 euro, an average bonus of 7,266 euro, and a total-compensation figure of 115,850.47 euro. Adding the gross and the bonus does not produce that total-compensation figure, so the page is not treated here as an arithmetic sum. An entry-level general counsel with 1 to 3 years of experience is at 75,873 euro. The median on the same page is 108,584 euro. A senior general counsel with 8 or more years is at 125,518 euro. The same source records the cost of living in Rome at 37 percent above the Italian average. That is a survey of employers in the city. It is not the minimum in a collective agreement, and it is not a cap.

The floor, for a dirigente of a company producing goods or services, is the Confindustria-Federmanager contract signed on 13 November 2024, in force from 1 January 2025 through 31 December 2027. Confindustria's release sets the trattamento minimo complessivo di garanzia at 80,000 euro for 2025 and at 85,000 euro from 2026, and makes a variable payment linked to results obligatory for everyone covered. The Federmanager summary of the same text caps probation at six months and requires it to be in writing. The ERI entry band of 75,873 euro sits under the 85,000 euro floor that applies from 2026. A title average that includes heads of legal who are not dirigenti will print a number a dirigente contract cannot use. Banks, insurance, commerce, telecommunications and the public-sector contracts sit on other agreements. An industrial floor does not travel to a counsel employed by an authority, and it does not travel to a bank.

The cap is a different instrument, and it does not cover the person most company briefs describe. Constitutional Court judgment no. 135, decided 28 July 2025, struck the flat 240,000 euro ceiling in article 13(1) of Decree-Law 66/2014 for public employees, from the day after publication in the Gazzetta on 30 July 2025, with no retroactive effect. The parameter returns to the all-inclusive pay of the First President of the Court of Cassation, to be fixed by a decree of the President of the Council after a parliamentary opinion. The judgment records that Department of Public Service circular no. 3 of 2014 quantified that treatment, for 2014, at 311,658.53 euro. That figure is a 2014 quantification the Court named. It is not a 2026 salary survey, and it is not the pay of a general counsel at Enel. A general counsel employed by a listed company is outside the public-employee cap the Court reopened.

The disclosure rule sits on top of the survey and the floor. Legislative Decree No. 96 of 7 May 2026, published in Gazzetta Ufficiale No. 125 on 1 June 2026 and in force on 7 June 2026, requires the job notice to state the initial pay or a range, set on objective and gender-neutral criteria, and the applicable collective agreement. Article 5 also prohibits asking the candidate for current or past pay, including through the person running the search. The decree covers dirigenti. The operating consequence for a retained search is immediate. The letter states a range. It cites the contract. It says whether the public-employee cap applies. It does not ask what the candidate earns now.

The lever analysis for an Italian package, once the base is pinned by the contract, is on general counsel compensation in Italy. How an Italian cash figure gets misread against London and New York is on the Italy, UK and US gap. The retained fee is not a city band: 25-30 percent of total first-year compensation, with 30 percent of that fee paid at engagement and kept if the client cancels. Where the seat is the energy concession rather than the corporate center, the officer-level brief is energy general counsel search. Transmission, defense, and the other Rome sector benches sit on their own pages, including defense counsel in Rome and transmission counsel in Rome.

05 — Notice and the start date

Week 11 is an accepted offer. A Rome start date still has the resignation notice on it.

Across the 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 its successor general counsel on that clock: a shortlist of four on day 24, accepted offer in week 11. The search stops there. The Italian notice period starts after the candidate resigns.

For a dirigente under the industrial managers' contract, the Federmanager summary of the 13 November 2024 renewal says the notice scale was not changed. The employer may not end an indefinite contract without notice of 6 months up to six years of company seniority, 8 months up to ten years, 10 months up to fifteen years, and 12 months beyond that. A dirigente who resigns gives one third of the employer's scale. Six months becomes two. Twelve months becomes four. Eight months and ten months stay as one third of those terms. A Rome candidate who has spent more than fifteen years inside one state-controlled industrial group, and who resigns to join another, is on four months of notice after the offer is accepted. The start date is that sum. It is not week 11.

Classification moves this more than a negotiation inside one scale. The 6 / 8 / 10 / 12 month scale binds a dirigente of an industrial employer. A head of legal engaged as a quadro is on a different contract and a shorter notice, and the trattamento minimo above does not apply. A counsel leaving a ministry, an independent authority, or another public-administration legal office is on the public contract, not on this table. The brief has to name which contract the candidate is leaving, because that contract sets the Monday the person can start.

On the Rome in-house line, the gap from offer to signature is 15 working days. That measurement is not the 24-day shortlist, and it is not the 11-week median. The span from signed brief to start, with notice included, is 5 to 8 months. It is longer than 11 weeks because the weeks end at acceptance and the months of notice sit after acceptance. Counter-offers landed on 32 percent of the 19 closed Rome searches. The defense is written before the resignation: the range already required by the June 2026 decree, the classification, and which notice the candidate is leaving. Where the seat cannot wait out a four-month resignation, interim cover is a separate instruction, on interim and fractional counsel, and it is not folded into the 38.

Company seniority Notice the employer owes Notice a resigning dirigente owes
Up to 6 years 6 months 2 months
Up to 10 years 8 months One third of 8 months
Up to 15 years 10 months One third of 10 months
More than 15 years 12 months 4 months

Industrial managers' contract only, as summarized by Federmanager from the text signed 13 November 2024. The renewal did not change the scale. A public-administration legal office, a bank, and a commerce employer set other notice.

Hiring in Rome?

Name the entity before you name the person.

Public body or company. Special list or giurista. Listed employer or unlisted vehicle. Notice of the employer being left. The letter records the fee, the range, and the cap before any approach.

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06 — How a Rome mandate is run

The same six steps. The Rome work is knowing which of the three jobs the brief just invented.

  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.

Sartori has run Rome in-house searches for 8 years. That is a search record. It is not a Rome office, and Rome is not one of the published hubs. The brief states which entity employs, whether that entity is a public body or a company, whether the seat is a dirigente or a quadro, whether the public-employee cap applies, and whether the counsel must instruct avvocati or was wrongly asked to be one. The fee letter goes with that page. The fee is 25-30 percent of total first-year compensation. Thirty percent of the fee is the retainer at engagement, kept if the client cancels. Replacement is 12 months on a GC, CLO, or CCO search and 6 months on other in-house searches. Off-limits on the client's legal department run 24 months.

Mapping uses the 1,480,000+ lawyer map, cut to people who have held the file the company actually has: a golden-power notification, a concession, a regulated tariff, a procurement challenge, or the first legal hire inside a smaller Rome employer. Outreach is confidential until both sides want a conversation. The shortlist carries dossiers. For a general counsel, the published timing is 24 days to that shortlist. Of the 19 closed Rome in-house searches over three years, 8 were a general counsel or a head of legal, 6 were senior counsel under a general counsel who was staying, and 5 were the company's first or second lawyer. Those three groups are the whole of the closed count. The 4 briefs rescoped off a pleading avvocato sit inside the 8.

One of them was the search for general counsel of an unlisted state-controlled infrastructure group in Rome. The accepted offer came in week 13, inside the 8-to-16 range on the 38. The offer was signed in 15 working days, the same gap as the city line. The counsel started 7 months after the brief, inside the 5 to 8 months. Four months of that span were the resignation notice the industrial scale sets after more than fifteen years with one employer. The chief executive who hired described the rescope this way: We asked for someone who could still plead. They took that line out. The counsel we hired runs the golden-power file and instructs outside avvocati for the hearing.

Completion and acceptance are the corporate book, not a Rome subset. Retained corporate mandates complete at 92 percent. Offer acceptance on corporate mandates is 96 percent. Retention of placed in-house leaders is 97 percent at 12 months and 91 percent at 24 months. The counter-offer rate on the closed Rome searches is the 32 percent above, and it stays a rate on the 19.

The timed file a buyer can read in full is the NASDAQ-listed medtech in Boston: blind succession, shortlist of four on day 24, accepted offer in week 11, 12-month replacement already in the letter. The write-up is the Boston GC succession. It shows the clock. It does not show an Italian notice period, and it does not show an Article 23 problem. A Rome start date still has to add the notice in the table above. The officer-level version of the same search, wherever the company sits, is general counsel search.

07 — Sources

What each figure is allowed to prove.

›17 sources
  1. 1 Sartori & Partners — corporate book and case studies 400+ placements since 2017 (230+ in-house); 52 GC/CLO; 24 days to shortlist; 11 weeks median, range 8 to 16; 96% acceptance; 92% completion of retained corporate mandates; 97% / 91% retention at 12 / 24 months; fee 25-30% with a 30% 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.
  3. 3 Sartori & Partners — About Founded in early 2017 by Lorenzo Sartori, in Italy. Published hubs do not include Rome.
  4. 4 Sartori & Partners — Research programme Market map of 1,480,000+ lawyers.
  5. 5 ERI SalaryExpert — General Counsel, Rome As of 2 October 2026: average gross 110,098 euro; average bonus 7,266 euro; total-compensation figure 115,850.47 euro; entry (1-3 years) 75,873 euro; median 108,584 euro; senior (8+ years) 125,518 euro; cost of living in Rome 37 percent above the Italian average.
  6. 6 ISTAT — Le partecipate pubbliche in Italia, anno 2023 Published 25 February 2026, reference year 2023: 8,323 publicly participated units employing 962,748 people; 5,756 industry and services enterprises employing 922,138; 3,546 publicly controlled enterprises employing 601,600. The Ministry of Economy and Finance is the main controller: 13.9 percent of controlled enterprises and 53.2 percent of their employees. Value added of publicly controlled enterprises above 70 billion euro, 6.5 percent of industry and services.
  7. 7 Osservatorio CPI, Università Cattolica — Lo Stato imprenditore: un aggiornamento MEF-controlled enterprises, direct or indirect, 492, with 319,944 employees, up from 328 enterprises and down from 363,510 employees in 2013. MEF direct holdings 40, of which 6 listed. At 1 February 2026 those stakes were worth 47 billion euro, 18.4 percent of combined market capitalization. CDP: 82.8 percent MEF, 15.9 percent banking foundations, 1.3 percent treasury shares. Unlisted issuers of listed instruments: Amco, CDP, Ferrovie dello Stato, Invitalia, Rai and Sace, stakes worth just under 40 billion euro.
  8. 8 MEF — Elenco partecipazioni Direct listed holdings named on the ministry list: Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Enav, Enel, Eni, Leonardo, Poste Italiane.
  9. 9 Relazione al Parlamento — poteri speciali, anno 2025 1,081 notifications and pre-notifications in 2025 (903 notifications and 178 pre-notifications), against 835 in 2024. Notifications about 37 percent higher than 2024. Special powers exercised in 46 cases. 2 oppositions. 29 notifications with conditions or prescriptions. 404 notifications closed by the coordination group without exercise of the powers. Article 2 files (energy, transport, communications and the newer sectors) above 80 percent of the flow, 723 notifications and 163 pre-notifications. Defense and public order 28.3 percent of the notification split. Energy 9 percent.
  10. 10 Law No. 247 of 31 December 2012 — Consiglio Nazionale Forense consolidated text Article 18(1)(d): practicing as an avvocato is incompatible with subordinate employment, including part-time. Article 23: special list for lawyers of a public body with a stable legal office and exclusive charge of that body's legal affairs.
  11. 11 Consiglio Nazionale Forense — parere 12 June 2024, no. 27 Negative answer for counsel at Poste Italiane, Eni, Terna, Snam, Italgas, Fincantieri, Saipem and Simest. CDP is a private-law company, so its portfolio companies are not prevalently owned by public bodies for Article 23.
  12. 12 Law No. 137 of 28 July 2026 — Normattiva Delegation to rewrite the ordinamento forense. In force 16 August 2026. One or more legislative decrees within six months, a term that ends 16 February 2027.
  13. 13 Legislative Decree No. 96 of 7 May 2026 — Normattiva Published in Gazzetta Ufficiale No. 125 of 1 June 2026. In force 7 June 2026. Article 5: notices state initial pay or a range, on objective and gender-neutral criteria, and the applicable collective agreement. Candidates, including through a search firm, may not be asked for current or past pay. The decree covers dirigenti.
  14. 14 Confindustria — CCNL dirigenti industria, renewal signed 13 November 2024 In force 1 January 2025 through 31 December 2027. TMCG 80,000 euro for 2025 and 85,000 euro from 2026. Variable, results-linked pay made obligatory.
  15. 15 Federmanager Cuneo — summary of the 2025-2027 industrial managers' contract Notice unchanged by the renewal: employer 6 / 8 / 10 / 12 months by company seniority; a resigning dirigente gives one third. Probation maximum six months, in writing.
  16. 16 Corte costituzionale — judgment no. 135 of 28 July 2025 Article 13(1) of Decree-Law 66/2014, the flat 240,000 euro cap, is unconstitutional from the day after publication in the Gazzetta (30 July 2025), with no retroactive effect. The parameter returns to the all-inclusive pay of the First President of the Court of Cassation, to be set by a DPCM. The judgment records the 2014 quantification of 311,658.53 euro in Department of Public Service circular no. 3 of 2014.
  17. 17 Cassa Forense — active lawyers, Ordine di Roma, 2023 25,089 active lawyers at the Ordine di Roma in 2023, of whom 11,205 women and 13,884 men, down from 25,199 in 2022. The roll is the practicing profession, not the in-house hiring pool.

08 — Questions

In-house counsel in Rome — common questions

What do in house legal recruiters Rome get retained to do?

in house legal recruiters Rome are retained when a general counsel or a chief executive needs counsel already employed in the city. Sartori and Partners has completed 400+ placements since 2017 (230+ in-house), including 52 general counsel and chief legal officer searches. On the Rome in-house line the closed count over three years is 19. The GC searches reach a shortlist in 24 days and an accepted offer in a median of 11 weeks, range 8 to 16. A NASDAQ-listed medtech in Boston hired a successor general counsel in week 11, from a shortlist of four on day 24.

Which employers in Rome hire a general counsel?

ISTAT's 25 February 2026 release, on the 2023 account, counted 8,323 publicly participated units employing 962,748 people, of which 5,756 were industry and services enterprises employing 922,138, and 3,546 were publicly controlled enterprises employing 601,600. The Osservatorio CPI at Università Cattolica, reading that account, puts enterprises controlled by the Ministry of Economy and Finance at 492, with 319,944 employees, and counts 40 companies the ministry holds directly, 6 of them listed. At 1 February 2026 those six stakes were worth 47 billion euro, 18.4 percent of the companies' market capitalization. The Rome names on that list are Enel, Eni, Leonardo, Poste Italiane and Enav. Monte dei Paschi di Siena is on the list and is not a Rome payroll.

Can a Rome general counsel stay enrolled as an avvocato?

Only inside a public body that meets Article 23 of Law No. 247 of 31 December 2012. Article 18 makes practicing as an avvocato incompatible with subordinate employment, including part-time employment. The Consiglio Nazionale Forense, parere of 12 June 2024, no. 27, refused the special list for counsel at Poste Italiane, Eni, Terna, Snam, Italgas, Fincantieri, Saipem and Simest, because Cassa Depositi e Prestiti is a private-law company. Of 400 structured Rome in-house interviews over three years, 140 were with a sitting general counsel or head of legal: 91 described a giurista seat, 27 an Article 23 office, and 22 a brief written as if both were possible. Law No. 137 of 28 July 2026, in force 16 August 2026, delegates a rewrite within six months. That term ends 16 February 2027. Law 247 is still the rule a Rome offer is written under.

What does a Rome general counsel package have to clear?

ERI's SalaryExpert employer survey, as of 2 October 2026, puts average gross pay for a general counsel in Rome at 110,098 euro, average bonus at 7,266 euro, and the page's total-compensation figure at 115,850.47 euro. Entry level, 1 to 3 years, is 75,873 euro. The median is 108,584 euro. Senior level, 8 or more years, is 125,518 euro. For a dirigente of an industrial employer, the Confindustria-Federmanager renewal signed 13 November 2024 sets the trattamento minimo complessivo di garanzia at 80,000 euro for 2025 and 85,000 euro from 2026. The entry band on the survey sits under that 2026 floor. Constitutional Court judgment no. 135, 28 July 2025, struck the flat 240,000 euro cap for public employees from the day after publication in the Gazzetta on 30 July 2025. A general counsel employed by a listed company is not that cap. Legislative Decree No. 96 of 7 May 2026, in force 7 June 2026, requires the notice to state initial pay or a range and the collective agreement, and prohibits asking the candidate, including through a search firm, for current or past pay.

How long is notice in Rome, and when can the counsel start?

The search clock ends at the accepted offer: 24 days to a shortlist and a median of 11 weeks, range 8 to 16, across the 52 general counsel and chief legal officer searches. Notice runs after that. On the industrial managers' contract, unchanged by the 13 November 2024 renewal, the employer owes 6 months up to six years of company seniority, 8 months up to ten, 10 months up to fifteen, and 12 months above fifteen. A dirigente who resigns gives one third of that scale. A counsel leaving a ministry or an authority is not on this scale. On the Rome in-house line, offer to signature is 15 working days, and the span from brief to start, notice included, is 5 to 8 months.

How is a Rome general counsel search paid?

Company mandates are retained. The fee is 25-30 percent of the hire's total first-year compensation. Thirty percent of the fee is paid at engagement and 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. 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. Counter-offers landed on 32 percent of the 19 closed Rome in-house searches.

09 — Related

The pages that sit next to this search.

Hiring in Rome?

Brief the entity, then the search.

Listed group, unlisted state vehicle, or public body. Special list or giurista. Retained, and scoped before anyone is called.

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