The highest paid in-house counsel saw some shifts due to the pandemic, and in different ways than their outside counsel counterparts. LawFuel gives the scoop on some of the general in-house counsel compensation trends, and comparisons between recent data that has been released. Is compensation important? Of course it is, but for some lawyers, lower compensation has brought greater happiness. So don’t send this post to HR without redacting that. One thing is clear, if Biglaw is engaging in salary wars, let their in-house counsel counterparts enjoy the fruits as well.
“Pandemic or not, 2020 was generally a very good year for partners at Big Law, but General Counsel in the US Fortune 1000 companies ‘suffered’ a relatively flat years according to Corporate Counsel’s recently released 2021 GC Compensation Survey. The average salaries were in the low half-million dollar range and bonuses were reduced with the mean bonus drop being from a little over $640,000 to just over $500,00, representing a 21 per cent decline. The compensation survey is flawed in some ways because for General Counsel working in large, or even small corporations and startups, much of their compensation can come through equity and stock options (as we refer below). The pure measurement of cash compensation, being salary, bonus, and non-equity compensation…”
Read: The Highest Paid In-House Counsel List – But How Should Their Pay Be Ranked? at LawFuel