Interim legal talent in Dublin

The 24 closed Dublin interim searches split once, and only once. 9 were funds or aircraft-leasing seats. 7 were technology or data-protection project seats. 5 were leave or vacancy cover on a counsel or general-counsel chair. 3 were commercial contract surges. Nine, seven, five, and three are 24. A second cut of the same book is not a fifth sector: 4 of the 24 closed only after the first day-rate was rewritten, because the brief had not chosen between an independent solicitor and a solicitor on the company payroll.

The funds slice follows the Central Bank’s €5,595 billion of assets under management at the end of the first quarter of 2026, and the 1 May 2026 commencement of S.I. No. 181/2026, not a generic “financial services” label. Aircraft leasing sits in the same 9 because the interim calls in this book have been Cape Town Convention filings and lease novations beside the fund files, not a separate industry count. The technology slice follows the Data Protection Commission’s 16,160 new cases in 2025. It is the work a counsel who has already answered a cross-border complaint can take without a quarter of onboarding. It is also the work that stalls when the company asks for an employee title and the only available lawyer will work as an independent solicitor. That mismatch is part of the 4. The technology file below is one of them, and one of the 7.

The leave slice is the chair that cannot be empty while a permanent search runs: parental leave, a medical leave, or the weeks between a resignation and a retained search. The commercial slice is smaller because Dublin’s interim calls in this book have been the supervisory perimeter and the fund perimeter first. A contract surge at a trading company in the city is real, and it is 3 files, not the center of the 24.

A counter-offer arrived on 18 percent of the 24. On a day-rate, the counter-offer is often a permanent conversion, or a base increase that keeps the lawyer in the current job through the filing. It is not the partner-line contest over a guarantee. The 94 percent completion rate is the share of Dublin interim mandates in this window that reached a start. It is not a claim that every brief was the right brief. The 4 rewritten rates are the part of the book that should have been scoped before the first number went to the lawyer.

The firm-wide interim clock is 7 days. That is the median from first call to start across 60+ interim and fractional engagements since 2017. A published file beat it: a Series C fintech in San Francisco had an interim general counsel live on day 6, for parental leave and a financing. That file is not a Dublin file. It is the evidence that a pre-cleared bench can start inside a week when the certificate question is already answered.

The Dublin interim clock is 2 to 5 weeks from signed brief to start, on 24 closed searches over three years. The same files ran 8 working days from written offer to acceptance. A counter-offer arrived on 18 percent. Those 8 working days are the decision after the rate and the certificate are written down. They are not the firm-wide median of 7 days from first call to start. The wider Dublin timeline is the practising certificate, the choice between an independent solicitor and a solicitor on payroll, and a contract set that has to be read in Irish and EU funds law as well as in English.

If the seat should become permanent, a third clock starts, and it is not the Dublin interim clock. A general counsel or chief legal officer search reaches a shortlist in 24 days and an accepted offer in a median of 11 weeks, range 8 to 16, across 38 such placements since 2017. The Dublin in-house line, which is permanent and separate from the 24, closed 15 searches over three years at a 93 percent completion rate, on a typical timeline of 8 to 16 weeks, with 14 working days from written offer to acceptance and a 30 percent counter-offer rate. Days billed on the interim engagement credit against that retained fee. The Dublin interim timeline does not shrink the 11 weeks, and it does not shrink the 8 to 16 weeks.

The running order on a Dublin interim file is the brief, the certificate check, the rate, the conflicts, and the start. Those labels are the order. They are not five separately measured averages. The measured figures are the ones above: 2 to 5 weeks, 8 working days from written offer to acceptance, and 18 percent. A file that needs a 2026 practising certificate the lawyer does not yet hold is timed to the Law Society, not to the 7-day firm median from first call to start.

A Dublin interim engagement opens on a written brief: the matter list, the seniority, the day-rate or retainer authority, the choice between an independent solicitor and a solicitor on payroll, the conflicts that are not negotiable, and a start inside 2 to 5 weeks. The map is the Dublin coverage. The interview cohort for the city is 250 structured interviews with Dublin partners and counsel. The mandate figures are closed files, not a slice of that cohort. Of those 250, 41 said the first day-rate on a contract brief had been copied from a permanent salary and then rewritten. That 41 is an interview finding. It is not a second count of the 4 closed files.

The mapping figure is a different instrument. Sartori maps 3,000 lawyers in Dublin, inside a firm market map of 1,480,000+ lawyers. That coverage is not the number of people who can start. Outreach is confidential and sequential. Interest, recent matter ownership, rate, notice, and whether the 2026 practising certificate is already in force are confirmed before a name reaches the company. Conflicts run before the first client interview when the book is a manager panel or a technology group. 4 of the 24 still needed the rate rewritten. That is the failure mode this order is meant to catch earlier: a number that goes out before the engagement form is chosen.

If the company converts the seat, the search becomes retained. The order of that search is the six labels below. They are the order of a permanent mandate, including resignation and the first hundred days. They are not six measured averages on the interim book. The interim measurement stops when counsel is on the work. The typical timeline is 2 to 5 weeks from signed brief to start on the closed Dublin interim mandates. The method is the one on our methodology. The research program that holds the cohort is the research program.