Bonuses, General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Money

Who Are America’s Best-Paid General Counsel? (2015 Rankings)

In-house life might be stressful, but millions of dollars in compensation surely makes up for it.

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Before we look at the rankings, here’s an important caveat about methodology:

This compensation is not exhaustive. Some well-paid top legal officers do not make the list simply because the five highest-paid executives earn more than the GC. Others don’t make the list because their company filed its proxy statement after May 31, and Corporate Counsel couldn’t research it because of its publishing deadline. Businesses in bankruptcy or that have merged in the past year may not file proxies. And Fortune 1000 corporations that are not publicly traded, such as insurance companies, don’t file proxy statements with the SEC.

Here are the top 10 highest-paid general counsel for 2015, per Corporate Counsel. They are ranked based on total cash compensation for 2014, which includes salary and bonus compensation but does not reflect stock options exercised or stock value realized.

This year’s top 10 list reflects more movement than last year’s list. Two of the listed lawyers, J. Michael Luttig of Boeing and Lawrence Tu of CBS, didn’t make the top 100 last year. Two more, John R. Parker Jr. of Coca Cola Alan D. Schnitzer of Travelers Cos., appeared in last year’s top 10, but were booted this year. (As a side note, where are all the women? Every single GC in the top 10 is a man. Thankfully, Maryanne Lavan of Lockheed Martin comes in at #11 on the list, with total take-home pay of $ 8,351,493. Get it, girl!)

Consistent with tradition, here are some comments on some of this list’s leading lawyers:

#1 Alan Braverman (Walt Disney) – Thanks to $5,488,301 of stock options exercised and stock value realized, Braverman was able to knock Brackett Denniston out of the top slot on this list for the first time in years. Braverman’s cash compensation in 2013 was “just” $4.2 million; this year, it was $6.6 million. As noted by Corporate Counsel, “[r]epresenting Mickey and friends is a pretty good gig.”

#2 Brackett Denniston (GE) – Poor, poor Denniston. He’s now in second place on this list, even though his take-home pay increased in 2014 to about $6 million from a “mere” $5.8 million in 2013.

#3 Paul Cappuccio (Time Warner) – The former Kirkland partner and former law clerk to Justice Scalia and Chief Judge Kozinski is a mainstay on this list. His total take-home pay decreased from just shy of $15 million in 2013 to just shy of $12 million in 2014. Aww.

#4 Gerson Zwiefach (21st Century Fox) – This year, Zweifach, a former Williams & Connolly partner, brought home the most bacon according to Corporate Counsel — at $3 million, he raked in the best base salary in the rankings.

#5 John Finley (Blackstone) – A newcomer to the list last year, Finley maintained his fifth-place finish by taking home $7.6 million in 2014.

#6 Gary Lynch (B of A) – B of A’s legal woes persisted into 2014, as did Lynch’s prosperous pay. Although he sank like a stone on this list, going from second place to sixth, he still took home $6.4 million in 2014 (down from $7.4 million in 2013).

#7 J. Michael Luttig (Boeing) – We’d like to welcome this former judge back to the list. Last year, his name was nowhere to be found, and this time around, he took home $5.7 million. What a comeback!

#8 Lawrence Tu (CBS) – Tu, a newcomer to the list, joined CBS as general counsel in January 2014, after serving as GC at Dell Inc. for more than nine years. Prior to that, he was in-house at NBCUniversal and at Goldman Sachs Asia Pacific. He was a partner at O’Melveny before that, and began his legal career as a Second Circuit clerk and a SCOTUS clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall. His résumé is worth its weight in gold, but bringing home $4.2 million isn’t half bad, either.

#9 David Drummond (Google) – Holy stock awards, Batman! We previously mentioned that Drummond received $40 million in stock awards last year. Google’s chief legal officer enjoyed take-home pay of $10.8 million in 2014.

#10 Michael Fricklas (Viacom) – Fricklas may have lost a few places in this year’s rankings, but he still earned take-home pay of $7.4 million, which is nothing to turn up one’s nose at.

Congratulations to these top general counsel on their impressive pay packages. In-house life might be stressful, but millions of dollars in compensation surely makes up for it.

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The 2015 GC Compensation Survey [Corporate Counsel]

Earlier: Who Are America’s Best-Paid General Counsel? (2014 Rankings)
Who Are America’s Best-Paid General Counsel? (2013 Rankings)
Who Are America’s Best-Paid General Counsel? (2012 Rankings)
Who Are America’s Best-Paid General Counsel? (2011 Rankings)
The Highest-Paid General Counsel (Kind of)

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