Who Are America’s Best-Paid General Counsel? (2017)

Which GC came out on top?

Day in and day out, associates slavishly bill their hours at Biglaw firms across the country, wondering if perhaps someday, they’ll be able to move in-house, where the grass must surely be greener. After all, a life without billable hours is, dare we say, actually a life.

As it turns out, the grass there is actually greener for many in-house attorneys, as money seems to grow on trees in this mythical, magical fairy-tale land.

While a great number of people believe that in-house lawyers earn less than their Biglaw counterparts, top in-house attorneys — the general counsel of America’s largest companies — often earn sums that exceed Biglaw partner pay.

How much more are general counsel earning than Biglaw partners? Take a look at Corporate Counsel’s new rankings of the nation’s best-paid general counsel.

Pay packages are growing for some of the best compensated legal department leaders in the land, according to Corporate Counsel’s 2017 General Counsel Compensation Survey. It’s a sign that as GCs grow in strategic importance to their companies, remuneration can grow as well. …

Measured by most metrics, general counsel in the report overall seem to have done well in 2016. [Tobacco giant Altria Group Inc.’s Denise] Keane serves as a prime example. When she appeared as the list’s highest-paid GC in 2011, she had received $6.5 million in cash pay. In 2016, she made about $2.5 million more, a significant boost.

This represents a broader trend, says [Lee] Udelsman, [managing partner of the in-house practice at legal recruiting consultancy Major, Lindsey & Africa]. “The GC role is being embraced as part of the leadership team and their sphere of influence has really expanded,” he says. “Compensation reflects that and has continued to rise over the past five, six, seven years.”

Here’s how general counsel compensation has changed since last year’s survey:

  • Average total cash compensation: $2.1 million, up by 3 percent.
  • Median cash compensation: $1.68 million, up by 4.2 percent.
  • Average base salary: $699,500, down by 1.1 percent.
  • Average bonus plus nonequity incentive compensation: $1.4 million, up by 5.2 percent.

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Corporate Counsel’s report also heralded a new “compensation champion” — Denise Keane, who retired as general counsel of Altria Group Inc. on June 30 after raking in more than $9 million in total cash, including base salary and bonus, in 2016. Keane is the only woman who has ever made it to the No. 1 spot on this list since it first started being compiled in 1994. (Keane also claimed the top spot in 2011.) In this year’s rankings, only one other woman is listed in the top 10. Women represent 24 percent of the list, an increase from 19 percent last year.

While Corporate Counsel’s rankings are based on cash compensation — including salary, bonus, and nonequity compensation — general counsel have a ton of money in long-term incentives like stock options and other types of equity compensation. Flip to the next page to see those rankings.

Stepping Up: The 2017 GC Compensation Survey [Corporate Counsel]
Chart: The Top Paid GCs of 2016 [Corporate Counsel]


Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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