Dimitri Mastrocola, a partner in Major, Lindsey & Africa’s in-house counsel recruiting group, makes a sharp point in a piece first written for Bloomberg Law. General counsel, chief legal officers and chief compliance officers at private equity firms, hedge funds and other alternative asset managers now share in the upside. A survey by MLA and Allvue of 157 of them found more than half receive some form of long-term incentive, pay once reserved for investment professionals and senior operating executives.
The general counsel compensation catch is the fine print. Only 44% say their firm clearly explains how those awards are allocated, and 45% think legal and compliance get an unfair slice. Mastrocola says candidates now ask about it before base salary. Smart. An award you can’t value is an award you can’t negotiate. Our take on MLA’s in-house compensation report has the wider picture, and chief compliance officer jobs are open now.
As Mastrocola puts it: “If a candidate can’t understand the compensation they’re receiving, it becomes more difficult to value or compare it against a competing offer.”
