Lawyers, the challenge of bridging gaps

The scenario

Lawyers' GDP at 15.5 billion (+5.2%). But imbalances weigh

Only 1.5% of the 233,000 lawyers produce 30% of the sector's turnover. The average income is reached after 15 years of activity

26 May 2025

3' min read

It is not just a question of income: the picture of the legal profession in 2025 still depicts an Italy divided into two, maximum three, polarised and distant zones. But not only on an economic level. The gaps are numerous even if all together they contribute to deepening the economic distances.

On the whole, however, for the first time after the pandemic, the profession is experiencing important signs of recovery: the GDP of the legal profession (i.e. the total turnover) declared in 2024 (and therefore produced in 2023) has reached 15.5 billion (+5.2% over the previous year, just below inflation), while the total Irpef income has exceeded ten billion (+5.6%) and the figure for individual income with an average of 47,678 thousand euros has managed to beat inflation (+6.8% compared to 2022). But the overall picture - as shown by the data of the latest Censis-Cassa forense report on the legal profession - is very articulated and, indeed, crossed by deep differences: income, territorial, gender and age.

The income pyramid

Looking in detail at the incomes and turnovers of the 233,260 lawyers enrolled in the Cassa forense, the first big gaps emerge. The average income of 47,000 euro is reached by men after 15 years of activity and reaches its peak, in absolute terms, with at least 35 years of seniority (but before that it was 39). Although, in reality, women, alone, never reach it: at most they declare 38,652 euro, which they reach at the top of their career between the ages of 55 and 59. In fact, the gender pay gap remains among the highest among the liberal professions: female lawyers collect half as much as men: 31,115 euro against 62,456.

A gap on which Cassa Forense has long focused its attention. "We have devised welfare measures in favour of female lawyers," recalls the newly-appointed president Maria Annunziata, "to elide, albeit partially, the objective difficulties of reconciling family commitments with the profession, such as contributions for children born or adopted or entrusted, contributions for the costs of attending summer centres, for assistance to family members who are not self-sufficient, and for single-parent families.

But there is also an excessive distance between the many at the base of the income pyramid and the top. The GDP of the legal profession is produced above all by an elite (mostly belonging to the large firms of business consultants): there are 3,596 (1.5% of the registered members) who declare a turnover of more than 500,000 euro and contribute more than 4.6 billion in turnover for 29.5% of the GDP. On the contrary, at the base of the pyramid, 27% of the registered members (over 54 thousand) have a turnover between 1 and 16,950 euros and therefore produce 453 million, 2.9% of the total turnover.

The other gaps

64% of lawyers work in a unipersonal firm. But today's market demands multidisciplinary skills and also rewards in terms of profitability the corporate or associated firm model (where just under 10% of members work). This was made clear by President Annunciata, who is always counting on welfare to reverse the trend: "Our task will be to increase welfare measures aimed at implementing new technologies in law firms, pushing towards more structured forms of multidisciplinary professional aggregation, and identifying new market spaces through the provision of specific and qualified training courses".

On the North-South axis there are further organisational differences. While on the whole 58% of a law firm's turnover still derives from judicial activity (generally less profitable), the percentage is lower in Lombardy and South Tyrol, while it is well above 60% in all southern regions. At the same time, in the South, the share of lawyers in the forfeit scheme (which 'pins' the income below 85,000 euros and prevents the choice of the more evolved corporate model) is well above 70%. By way of comparison, in Lombardy and Trentino Alto Adige the same quota falls below 55 per cent.