Italy | In-house salary guide and market report 2021

The findings offer valuable insights into the hiring trends and salary fluctuations across the market and follow the rise and fall of job prospects in Italy. This market update and salary guide is the result of in-depth qualitative and quantitative research of in-house teams across Italy.

2020 has been a remarkable year – which has required us all to juggle and adapt to many changes. As we are entering a new phase of the Covid-19 pandemic it is hard to look back and think that “only” 12 months have gone by since we last drafted this survey. Exhausted by the past year but thrilled by the fresh breeze brought by booming economies we are curious and excited to think forward and try to perceive what the world will look like in the coming months and what are the changes that are already impacting our market.

Most vacancies were for jobs of new creation, often to reinforce existing legal departments. This reflects a new trend, whereby corporates will be looking to structure their internal legal departments with the view of replicating the departments of law firms. This will enable corporates to seek external legal advice only for very specific and complex matters and allow them to further reduce external legal expenditure.

Whilst corporates remain careful about external expenditure, in most cases they would seek external support only after failing to source the profiles directly. In fact, the feedback we have received so far is that sourcing candidates at the more junior end is proving very difficult: hiring managers are finding candidates lacking enthusiasm, curiosity, motivation and energy. Money no longer seems to be the deal breaker but smart working has: corporates who are not planning to offer this benefit in the coming months will find it very difficult to retain talent. It looks like working from home will be part of our new normal and one of the changes the post pandemic era will not be able to erase.

In reverse, the job market at the more senior end of the spectrum is less buoyant. As General Counsel / Head of Legal openings are limited, competition is high and those looking to make a move will need to prove themselves beyond all scopes.

Complete the form below to download the full report.