ALM Law.Com Compass - 2024 GC Compensation Survey

GC Compensation Survey:

Review the compensation packages for general counsel at America’s top corporations. Learn how much the highest-paid in-house counsel earn in terms of salary, bonus and non-equity incentive compensation. Learn how corporations like General Electric, Disney, Time Warner and more are compensating their top legal talent, and use this competitive intelligence

Methodology:

ALM Intelligence combs through the top 1000 companies’ proxies in order to compile a list of general counsel salaries. They then rank the 500 best-paid according to cash compensation, which includes salary, bonus and non-equity incentive compensation (a column added in 2007 on the proxy statement in which companies record bonuses for hitting performance targets).

Public companies must disclose the compensation packages for their CEOs and their four other highest-paid executives in the annual proxy statements they file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. General Counsel are frequently among the highest-paid executives whose pay packages must be disclosed.

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 do not make the list because their company filed its proxy statement after May 31, and Corporate Counsel could not research it because of their publishing deadline. Businesses in bankruptcy or merged in the past year may not file proxies. And Fortune 1000 corporations that are not publicly traded, such as insurance companies, do not file proxy statements with the SEC.

For our chart and rankings, we have combined both types of bonuses in one column labeled “Bonus/Non Equity Incentive Compensation.” Data in the spreadsheet also includes stock, option and cash-out awards. Cash-outs include stock value realized as well as options exercised in our “Stock” column in an effort to paint a more complete picture of equity compensation

Release Date: August, 2024

To order, please complete and return the attached order form here to Ron Dinkins at [email protected] or simply fill out the order form and send it back via fax to 646 822 5326. If there are any questions, please contact Ron Dinkins at 212 457 7819. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me.

Thank you for your time and interest in ALM.

Ron Dinkins

Research Sales Account Executive

ALM Legal Intelligence