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The dynamic roles of lawyers at the helm of legal departments have grown in value, with average total compensation rising by $148,000 in 2023, according to the Law360® Pulse 2024 Compensation Report: General Counsel.
Our report examined the compensation of general counsel and chief legal officers at companies in the S&P 500 based on filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for fiscal year 2023. Rankings were calculated by both total compensation value (sum of salary, bonus, stock and options awards, non-equity incentive plans and all other compensation) and total cash (salary plus bonus).
The data shows that pay packages for top corporate general counsel have continued to stay strong, with stock awards and other benefits boosting compensation to well over $12 million for all the S&P 500 legal chiefs in the top 10.
Here were some of the key takeaways from our research:
The highest paid GC in the S&P 500 last year was Kent Walker at Alphabet, who received total compensation of $27.3 million, followed by Apple’s Kate Adams ($26.9 million), Blackstone’s John Finley ($17.9 million), Booking Holdings’ Peter Millones ($15.5 million) and Broadcom’s Mark Brazeal ($15.4 million). Stock awards made up the largest portion of total compensation for the top 10 highest-paid GCs, seven of whom also had the largest stock awards, but two legal chiefs had the distinction of making it onto the top 10 list in both total comp and total cash: Kathryn Ruemmler of Goldman Sachs ($13.3 million total, $7.3 million cash) and David Hyman of Netflix ($13.6 million total, $4 million cash). There is a wide range of compensation among top GCs, with a $15 million pay gap between first and 10th place among S&P 500 legal chiefs.
The communications services sector again topped the list of industries with the highest-paid GCs and chief legal officers, with a media total compensation of $9.3 million. The second-highest sector was energy ($5 million), followed by financials ($4.5 million), healthcare ($4.3 million) and information technology ($4.2 million). Our research found that healthcare, information technology and consumer discretionary sectors saw a slight decrease in median total compensation from the previous year — with healthcare seeing the largest drop ($400,000).
There were 156 men and 100 women GCs whose compensation packages were analyzed in our report, with men averaging more than women in total compensation, but women averaging more than men in total cash. On average, men earned $5 million in total compensation vs. $4.6 million for women; while women averaged $893,000 in total cash vs. $829,000 for men. Only two out of the top 10 highest-paid GCs are women: Kate Adams of Apple and Kathryn Ruemmler of Goldman Sachs.
Our report identified a consistent difference in average compensation between GCs who graduated from top law schools and those who did not. Of the GCs at S&P 500 companies whose pay was disclosed, 103 graduated from law schools in the top 14 ranked by U.S. News & World Report and 152 graduated from non-“T14” law schools. Graduates of T14 law schools earned an average of $5.3 million vs. $4.5 million for alumni of non-T14 schools, although total cash was slightly higher for non-T14 school grads ($875,000 vs. $827,000). Harvard Law School educated the highest number of GCs named in S&P 500 company filings (21), followed by Georgetown University (15) and the University of Virginia (12).
The report also noted that corporate lawyers are wearing many hats that go beyond the traditional GC role of providing legal advice. This increased versatility and value to their executive teams as business counselors has been rewarded by rising compensation for those legal chiefs at S&P 500 companies.
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