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Warsaw · In-house counsel

General counsel recruiters in Warsaw

Retained search for a general counsel or a chief executive hiring counsel who will sit in Warsaw, on a Polish contract, in the profession the seat can actually employ.

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›Two professions, a three-month notice, and an 11-week clock

For in house legal recruiters Warsaw and general counsel recruiters Warsaw, the brief is a retained search. As of 30 June 2026, KIRP counted 57,061 attorneys-at-law in Poland. OIRP Warszawa counted over 16,380 of them in July 2026, plus 1,670 trainees. ABSL, on 2 March 2026, counted 111,200 people in 418 Warsaw business-services centers. Sartori & Partners has completed 52 general counsel and chief legal officer searches since 2017; the median accepted offer is 11 weeks. A NASDAQ-listed medtech in Boston hired a successor general counsel in week 11, from a shortlist of four on day 24.

01 — The brief answer

A Warsaw seat is one city and two professions.

A chief executive in Warsaw writes one description: Polish and English, comfortable with the regulator, able to start next quarter. The description hides the decision that actually sets the hire. An attorney-at-law can sit on the payroll. An advocate cannot practice while employed, except in research and teaching. A civil-law contract escapes the Labour Code notice scale and then, from 8 July 2026, sits inside a labour inspector's power to call it employment. The counsel who can sign a pleading and the counsel who can only instruct one are not interchangeable, and the three-month notice that follows three years with the same employer is not a start date.

That is the hiring problem in-house counsel recruiting is retained to solve for a company whose legal seat is in this city. The firm was founded in early 2017 by Lorenzo Sartori. The research programme maps 1,480,000+ lawyer profiles and has run a quarterly survey since 2019. It does not publish a Warsaw tally of closed in-house searches. The figures below are the corporate book, the same figures printed on the seven case studies. They are the clock a Warsaw file is run against. They are not a claim that those 52 general counsel sit in the capital.

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

02 — Local employers and sectors

A foreign center and a listed issuer hire different counsel.

ABSL, on 2 March 2026, published the Warsaw census from its report on the business-services sector in the capital for 2025/2026. Warsaw ranked first in Poland by number of centers and by employment. The capital held 418 centers, of which 330, or 79 percent, were foreign-owned. Employment in 2025 was 111,200 people, nearly a quarter of national business-services employment, and 66.5 percent higher than in 2020. Knowledge-based tasks accounted for nearly 60 percent of the work, and the share of employment in IT centers rose from 18.7 percent in 2015 to 31.6 percent. A center of that kind hires for vendor contracts, employment, privacy, and a group policy manual, often under legal direction that sits outside Poland.

ABSL's national note of 18 June 2026 counts 2,179 centers and 1,303 companies at the end of the first quarter, a 6.1 percent share of GDP, 2025 exports of USD 48.4 billion, and employment stabilizing at half a million. It publishes no newer Warsaw headcount. The capital figure to use is still 111,200 people in 2025, across 418 centers.

The other employer is the issuer and the regulated headquarters. The Warsaw Stock Exchange statistics page, stating the position as of 6 October 2026, counted 402 companies on the main market: 383 domestic and 19 foreign, with capitalization of PLN 3,067,792.05 million. GPW treats a company seated in Poland, and a foreign company listed only on GPW, as domestic. The primary market held 304 of those companies and the parallel market 98. Banks, the listed insurer, the exchange itself, telecom operators, games groups, and energy groups with a Warsaw legal seat hire against that calendar. The financial supervisor, the competition and consumer authority, and the data-protection authority sit in Warsaw, so a headquarters counsel files in the same city as the board. The commercial register for a Warsaw company is a Warsaw court.

The attorney-at-law chamber is wider than the city. OIRP Warszawa, stating the position as of July 2026, counted over 16,380 attorneys-at-law and 1,670 trainees across Warsaw and the surrounding counties it lists, including Płock and Siedlce. Its 2 January 2026 note, looking back at 2025, reported over 17,700 members and over 1,700 trainees. One release counts members. The later page counts attorneys-at-law and trainees separately. Neither release is a headcount of in-house counsel. Private-practice movement sits on legal recruitment in Warsaw.

03 — Licensing

Payroll is open to an attorney-at-law. It is closed to an advocate.

As of 30 June 2026, the National Bar of Attorneys-at-Law counted 57,061 attorneys-at-law on the rolls: 32,368 women and 24,693 men. Trainees numbered 6,709, of whom 4,024 were women and 2,685 were men. KIRP published those figures in Radca Prawny No. 226, the July/August 2026 issue, and in the same article stated the forms of practice: 23,356 attorneys-at-law run their own offices, 17,216 practice under an employment contract, 4,201 practice under civil-law contracts, and 9,124 combine more than one form. The chart beside that sentence marks 6,787 who are in employment and an office or a partnership at the same time, and 3,320 practicing in partnerships. Those six numbers are not a partition of 57,061. In the first half of 2026 the roll added 1,159 entries and recorded 258 deletions. The employed slice, 17,216, is the statutory population a company is hiring from when it wants a radca prawny on the payroll. It is a national figure, not a Warsaw in-house census.

Article 8 of the Attorneys-at-Law Act of 6 July 1982, consolidated as Dz.U. 2024 item 499, allows a radca prawny to practice under an employment contract, a civil-law contract, their own office, or the partnerships the article names. Article 8(6) keeps criminal defense, except for research and research-teaching staff, off an employed attorney-at-law's desk.

The advocate rule is the opposite gate. Article 4b of the Advocacy Act of 26 May 1982, consolidated as Dz.U. 2024 item 1564 and read in the text current at 6 October 2026, provides that an advocate cannot practice the profession while in an employment relationship, except research and research-teaching staff. The Ministry of Justice, replying on 19 March 2025 to Sejm interpellation no. 7689, said it was not preparing a repeal of Article 4b(1)(1). An advocate the company wants on the payroll is the wrong contract. The market pattern is a civil-law engagement with the advocate's own practice, or an attorney-at-law on the employment contract. Screening for "Polish qualified" and then sending an employment contract to an advocate produces a candidate who cannot sign it and keep the admission.

A foreign lawyer is a third screen, under the Act of 5 July 2002, consolidated as Dz.U. 2020 item 823. Permanent practice requires entry on a foreign-lawyer list kept by a district advocates' council or an attorneys-at-law chamber. Full admission requires the statutory fitness conditions, spoken and written Polish, and a skills test. Qualifications obtained mostly outside the European Union also require at least three years of practice under an EU professional title, confirmed by the home state. An English-qualified counsel who negotiates group contracts and does not plead in a Polish court is a different hire from a radca prawny who signs pleadings.

04 — Notice and the start date

Acceptance is week 11. Notice of up to three months starts then.

The published general-counsel clock stops at the accepted offer: 24 days to a shortlist and 11 weeks median across 38 searches since 2017, range 8 to 16. The contract the candidate is leaving then sets the start. In Warsaw that contract is employment under the Labour Code, or a civil-law contract the Labour Code does not time.

Article 36 §1 of the Labour Code, in the consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 item 1245, version from 24 September 2026, sets one scale for indefinite and fixed-term employment. Notice is 2 weeks if the employee has been employed by that employer for less than 6 months, 1 month if employment has lasted at least 6 months, and 3 months if it has lasted at least 3 years. Article 36 §1(1) adds the predecessor: service with the previous employer counts when the workplace transferred under Article 23(1), and in the other cases where statute makes the new employer the successor in the employment relationships. A counsel who moved with a carve-out can be on a three-month notice even though the current legal entity is young. After notice has been given, Article 36 §6 lets the parties agree an earlier end date. That agreement does not change the mode of termination. It is a date, not a resignation dressed as something else.

Article 36(2), in the same consolidated text, lets the employer release the employee from work until the notice ends, with pay continuing. Employment continues. A counsel who has resigned stays an employee until the notice date, or until an earlier date agreed under §6, and can be kept off the files while being paid.

A post-employment non-compete is Article 101(2) of the same code. Compensation cannot be lower than 25 percent of the remuneration the employee received before termination, for a period equal to the length of the ban, and it may be paid in monthly installments. The ban ends early if the reason for it disappears or the employer does not pay. The 25 percent is a floor under an employment-contract ban. It is not a floor under a civil-law non-compete, because Article 101(2) is an employment rule.

Civil-law contracts, including B2B, sit outside Article 36. KIRP's 4,201 attorneys-at-law on civil-law contracts, as of 30 June 2026, take their notice from the contract itself. From 8 July 2026 the Act of 11 March 2026, Dz.U. 2026 item 473, lets a regional labour inspector, after an order to cure goes unheeded, decide that a civil-law contract, a contract for a specific task, a B2B contract, or a management contract is employment where Labour Code Article 22 §1 is met: work of a specified kind, under direction, at a place and time set by the employer, for pay. Appeal is to the labour court. A voluntary-conversion window runs to 8 July 2027. The fine for substituting a civil contract for employment is PLN 2,000 to 60,000. The offer letter names the form, and the form names the notice.

Where the seat cannot wait out a three-month notice, interim cover is a different product. Across 60+ interim and fractional engagements since 2017, counted outside the 400+ placements (230+ in-house), the median from first call to start is 7 days. One published file, an interim general counsel for a Series C fintech in San Francisco, was live on day 6. That cover runs during a Warsaw notice. It sits outside the 38. A longer contractual notice on an employment contract still governs: the longer number sets the start date.

05 — Compensation sources

Public figures price the city. They do not price the seat.

The public sources that touch pay in this city measure a floor, a citywide average, and a headcount of contract forms. None of them is a general-counsel band.

The wage floor is the Council of Ministers regulation of 11 September 2025, Dz.U. 2025 item 1242, in force on 1 January 2026. From that date the minimum monthly wage is PLN 4,806 and the minimum hourly rate is PLN 31.40. The monthly figure is the floor under a full-time employment contract, including a lawyer on a payroll.

The citywide average is the Statistical Office in Warszawa. Its information note of 12 August 2026, on the distribution of wages in the national economy in Mazowieckie Voivodship in December 2025, put average gross monthly wages of Warsaw residents at PLN 14,205.76, up 7.2 percent on December 2024. Residents of the voivodship averaged PLN 11,701.77, up 8.1 percent and 19.2 percent above the national average. The median in Mazowieckie was PLN 8,988.56, up 9.3 percent. The office counts employees by place of residence, across the economy. A counsel reading PLN 14,205.76 as a peer salary has used the wrong population.

The professional split is KIRP's, and it is a headcount, not a salary survey. On 30 June 2026, 17,216 attorneys-at-law were in employment and 4,201 were on civil-law contracts. Employment carries Labour Code notice, the 25 percent non-compete floor, and social contributions on the payroll. A civil-law or B2B contract carries the notice the parties wrote, no Article 101(2) floor, and, from 8 July 2026, the inspector's reclassification power. The cash the company pays has to be compared inside one form. An employment salary and a B2B invoice are not the same zloty.

Listed-company disclosure does not fill the gap. A GPW remuneration report covers members of the management board and the supervisory board. A general counsel who sits on neither board is absent from it. The 402 issuers on the exchange as of 6 October 2026 are the employer population. They are not a published pay table for the legal seat.

The retained fee is published on the case studies, and it is not a Warsaw band. 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. A retained GC, CLO or CCO search carries a 12-month replacement term. Other in-house searches carry 6 months. Off-limits on the client's legal department run 24 months, and a lawyer we have placed is not approached for as long as they stay. The zloty amount is the company's offer. The fee is calculated on that offer once the form of contract is chosen. General counsel salary, 2026 and in-house counsel salary, 2026 are the published cash pages for the chair and the desk. In-house counsel salary in Germany, 2026 is the nearest European page of the same kind. None of the three is a Warsaw quote, and a dollar or euro band pasted into a zloty offer is the wrong instrument.

Hiring in Warsaw?

Name the profession and the contract before the person.

Attorney-at-law or advocate. Employment or civil-law. The letter records the fee and the replacement term before any approach.

Discuss a Warsaw mandate → Talk to us →

contact@sartoriglobal.com

06 — How a search runs

The same six steps. The Warsaw 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.

Of the 400+ placements since 2017 (230+ in-house), 52 are general counsel or chief legal officer, 47 are deputy general counsel or head of legal, 87 are senior and specialist counsel, 36 are compliance leadership, and 12 are legal operations. A Warsaw brief can be any of those seats. The general-counsel clock is the 24 days and the 11 weeks. A deputy file on the published book runs to a shortlist in 21 days and an accepted offer in 10 weeks, across those 47. The blueprint says which seat this one is, because the clock and the replacement term follow the seat.

The first step names the entity that employs, the profession the contract can carry, whether pleadings are signed in-house, which regulator is the file, and whether the people likely to move are on employment notice or a B2B term. Mapping then uses the research programme's profile map of 1,480,000+ lawyers, cut to people who have held that file. Outreach stays confidential until both sides want a conversation. For a general counsel the published average is 24 days to a shortlist of dossiers. The offer is built in zloty on the form the profession allows, with Article 36 notice, any Article 36(2) release, and any Article 101(2) non-compete scheduled before resignation.

Retained corporate mandates complete at 92 percent. Offer acceptance is 96 percent. Retention of placed in-house leaders is 97 percent at 12 months and 91 percent at 24 months. The replacement term is 12 months for a GC, CLO or CCO and 6 months for other in-house seats. Off-limits on the client's legal department run 24 months.

07 — Published files

The clock is real. It is not a Warsaw placement.

Seven case studies are published. Six are company-side. None is a Warsaw mandate. The dates below are the published files.

CORPORATE BOOK · NOT A WARSAW COUNT 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. The sitting GC was not shopped.
Outcome
A shortlist of four reached the board on day 24. The accepted offer closed in week 11. The general counsel's account of that file: "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 retention rate of 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, and who could face a public-company cadence if the sponsor listed.
Complication
The deputy clock on the published book is 21 days to a shortlist and 10 weeks to offer, across 47 searches. This file was faster, because a rumour that legal was being rebuilt would have travelled.
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, not an in-house one.

08 — Sources

What each figure is allowed to prove.

›20 sources cited on this page
  1. 1 Sartori & Partners — Research programme 1,480,000+ lawyer profiles worldwide; quarterly survey since 2019. No Warsaw closed-search count is taken from this page.
  2. 2 Sartori & Partners — About Founded early 2017 by Lorenzo Sartori; Brussels network in 2019, then Dubai and Riyadh.
  3. 3 Case studies — corporate book 400+ placements since 2017 (230+ in-house), of which 52 GC/CLO, 47 deputy GC / head of legal, 87 senior and specialist counsel, 36 compliance leadership, 12 legal operations; 60+ interim outside the 230+; 24 days and 11 weeks (range 8 to 16); 96% acceptance; 92% completion; 97% / 91% retention; fee 25–30% with a 30% retainer; 12-month and 6-month replacement; 24-month off-limits.
  4. 4 GC succession — NASDAQ-listed medtech, Boston Shortlist of four on day 24; accepted offer in week 11; 12-month replacement in the letter.
  5. 5 KIRP — Radca Prawny No. 226 (July/August 2026) As of 30 June 2026: 57,061 attorneys-at-law (32,368 women, 24,693 men) and 6,709 trainees (4,024 women, 2,685 men). Forms: 23,356 in their own offices, 17,216 in employment, 4,201 on civil-law contracts, 9,124 combining more than one form. The same chart marks 6,787 in employment and an office or partnership at once, and 3,320 in partnerships. H1 2026: 1,159 new entries and 258 deletions.
  6. 6 OIRP Warszawa — chamber size, July 2026 As of July 2026 the Warsaw chamber counted over 16,380 attorneys-at-law and 1,670 trainees. The district covers Warsaw and the surrounding counties the chamber lists, including Płock and Siedlce. One of 19 regional chambers.
  7. 7 OIRP Warszawa — 2025 year note, 2 January 2026 In 2025 the chamber reported over 17,700 members and over 1,700 attorney-at-law trainees. A members count, stated separately from the July 2026 attorney-at-law count.
  8. 8 ABSL — Warsaw business services, 2 March 2026 418 centers, of which 330 (79%) foreign-owned; 111,200 employed in 2025, nearly a quarter of national business-services employment; +66.5% from 2020 to 2025; knowledge-based tasks nearly 60%; IT-center share of employment from 18.7% in 2015 to 31.6%. ABSL employment census only.
  9. 9 ABSL — national business services, 18 June 2026 End of Q1 2026: 2,179 centers and 1,303 companies nationally; GDP share 6.1%; 2025 exports USD 48.4 billion; employment stabilizing at half a million. No newer Warsaw center or headcount.
  10. 10 GPW — market statistics Position as of 6 October 2026: 402 companies on the main market (383 domestic, 19 foreign); capitalization PLN 3,067,792.05 million. Primary market 304 companies; parallel market 98. GPW counts a company seated in Poland, and a foreign company listed only on GPW, as domestic.
  11. 11 Council of Ministers — minimum wage for 2026 Regulation of 11 September 2025, Dz.U. 2025 item 1242, in force 1 January 2026. Minimum monthly wage PLN 4,806. Minimum hourly rate PLN 31.40. Amounts in the published text: https://sip.lex.pl/akty-prawne/dzu-dziennik-ustaw/wysokosc-minimalnego-wynagrodzenia-za-prace-oraz-wysokosc-minimalnej-22178307
  12. 12 Statistical Office in Warszawa — wages, December 2025 Information note of 12 August 2026. Average gross monthly wages of Warsaw residents PLN 14,205.76 (+7.2% on December 2024). Mazowieckie residents PLN 11,701.77 (+8.1%), 19.2% above the national average. Median in Mazowieckie PLN 8,988.56 (+9.3%). All employees by place of residence, not in-house counsel.
  13. 13 Labour Code — Article 36, notice Consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 item 1245, version from 24 September 2026. §1: 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months by length of service with the same employer. §1(1): predecessor service under Article 23(1) counts. §6: the parties may agree an earlier end date after notice. LexLege legal state 7 October 2026: https://lexlege.pb.pl/kodeks-pracy/art-36/
  14. 14 Labour Code — Article 36(2), release from work Same consolidated text. On notice, the employer may release the employee from the duty to perform work until the notice ends. Pay continues during that release. LexLege: https://lexlege.pb.pl/kodeks-pracy/art-36-2/
  15. 15 Labour Code — Article 101(2), post-employment non-compete Same consolidated text. Compensation for a post-employment non-compete cannot be lower than 25% of the remuneration received before termination, for a period equal to the ban. It may be paid monthly. The ban ends early if the employer does not pay.
  16. 16 Attorneys-at-Law Act — Article 8 Act of 6 July 1982, consolidated Dz.U. 2024 item 499. A radca prawny may practice under an employment contract, a civil-law contract, in their own office, or in specified partnerships. Article 8(6): criminal defense as counsel cannot be performed while in an employment relationship, except by research and research-teaching staff.
  17. 17 Advocacy Act — Article 4b Act of 26 May 1982, consolidated Dz.U. 2024 item 1564, text as at 6 October 2026. An advocate cannot practice the profession while in an employment relationship, except research and research-teaching staff.
  18. 18 Ministry of Justice — interpellation no. 7689 Reply of 19 March 2025. No legislative work planned to repeal Advocacy Act Article 4b(1)(1).
  19. 19 Foreign lawyers — Act of 5 July 2002 Consolidated Dz.U. 2020 item 823. Permanent practice requires entry on a foreign-lawyer list kept by a district advocates' council or an attorneys-at-law chamber. Full admission to either roll requires the statutory fitness conditions, Polish spoken and written, and a skills test. Qualifications obtained mostly outside the EU also require at least three years' practice under an EU professional title.
  20. 20 National Labour Inspectorate — reclassification from 8 July 2026 Act of 11 March 2026 amending the National Labour Inspectorate Act, Dz.U. 2026 item 473, in force 8 July 2026. A regional inspector may decide that a civil-law contract, a contract for a specific task, a B2B contract, or a management contract is employment where Labour Code Article 22 §1 is met. Appeal is to the labour court. Voluntary conversion window to 8 July 2027. Fine for unlawful substitution of a civil contract: PLN 2,000 to 60,000. Commentary: https://milewska.legal/nowe-uprawnienia-pip-od-8-lipca-2026-kiedy-zlecenie-lub-b2b-stanie-sie-etatem/ and https://www.rp.pl/praca-emerytury-i-renty/art44767541-inspektor-pracy-zrobi-porzadek-z-umowami

09 — Questions

In-house counsel in Warsaw — common questions

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

A general counsel or a chief executive hires them when the counsel the company needs is already in a job. The exchange, the financial supervisor, and the headquarters legal desk are in the same city. Sartori & Partners has completed 400+ placements since 2017 (230+ in-house), including 52 general counsel and chief legal officer searches. No Warsaw-only closed-search count is published on the research page or the seven case studies.

Which employers hire in-house counsel in Warsaw?

ABSL, on 2 March 2026, counted 418 business-services centers in Warsaw, 330 of them (79 percent) foreign-owned, employing 111,200 people in 2025. The Warsaw Stock Exchange, as of 6 October 2026, listed 402 companies, 383 domestic and 19 foreign, with capitalization of PLN 3,067,792.05 million. Banks, the listed insurer, telecom, games, and energy groups with a Warsaw legal seat hire against that calendar. Private-practice context is on legal recruitment in Warsaw.

Can an advocate be employed as a Warsaw general counsel?

An advocate (adwokat) cannot practice the profession while in an employment relationship, except research and research-teaching staff. That is Article 4b of the Advocacy Act of 26 May 1982 (consolidated text Dz.U. 2024 item 1564). The Ministry of Justice, replying on 19 March 2025 to Sejm interpellation no. 7689, said no legislative work was planned to repeal Article 4b(1)(1). An attorney-at-law (radca prawny) may practice under an employment contract, a civil-law contract, in their own office, or in the partnerships Article 8 of the Attorneys-at-Law Act of 6 July 1982 names. As of 30 June 2026, KIRP counted 17,216 attorneys-at-law in employment and 4,201 on civil-law contracts, in a national roll of 57,061. The profession decides whether a payroll contract is even available.

What notice period applies before a Warsaw counsel can start?

On an employment contract, Labour Code Article 36 §1 (consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 item 1245, version from 24 September 2026) sets notice at 2 weeks if service with that employer is under 6 months, 1 month from 6 months, and 3 months from 3 years. Service with a predecessor employer counts when Article 23(1) transfers the workplace. After notice, Article 36(2) lets the employer release the counsel from work until the notice ends, with pay continuing. The parties may agree an earlier end date under Article 36 §6. A civil-law or B2B contract is outside Article 36. From 8 July 2026, after an order to cure goes unheeded, a regional labour inspector can decide that a civil-law, specific-task, B2B, or management contract is employment (Act of 11 March 2026, Dz.U. 2026 item 473).

Where does a company read compensation for a Warsaw general counsel?

No public series prices the seat. From 1 January 2026 the statutory minimum wage is PLN 4,806 a month and the minimum hourly rate is PLN 31.40 (Council of Ministers regulation of 11 September 2025, Dz.U. 2025 item 1242). The Statistical Office in Warszawa, in its 12 August 2026 note on December 2025, put average gross monthly wages of Warsaw residents at PLN 14,205.76. That is every employee by place of residence, not counsel. A GPW remuneration report covers management-board and supervisory-board members. The nearest published Sartori cash pages are general counsel salary, 2026 and in-house counsel salary, 2026. Neither is a Warsaw quote. The retained fee is 25–30 percent of the hire's total first-year compensation.

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

Across 52 general counsel and chief legal officer searches since 2017, the shortlist arrives in 24 days on average and the accepted offer in a median of 11 weeks, range 8 to 16. A NASDAQ-listed medtech in Boston hired a successor general counsel from a shortlist of four on day 24, with the accepted offer in week 11. Thirty percent of the fee is paid at engagement. GC, CLO and CCO searches carry a 12-month replacement term; other in-house searches carry 6 months. Offer acceptance on corporate mandates is 96 percent. Notice under Article 36 runs after acceptance. Interim cover, when a three-month notice cannot be carried, is a separate book: 60+ engagements since 2017, outside the 230+, median 7 days from first call to start.

10 — Related

The pages that sit next to this search.

Hiring in Warsaw?

Brief the profession, then the search.

Attorney-at-law or advocate. Employment or civil-law. Retained, confidential, and scoped before anyone is called.

Hire legal talent Talk to us

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