General counsel will be pleased to hear that their compensation is continuing to increase, according to a new report, with bonuses growing drastically from 2015 to 2016. But there’s a discouraging side to the data too— there continues to be a gender pay gap at all levels in legal departments.
The 2017 In-House Counsel Compensation Report from legal recruiting firm Major, Lindsey & Africa looked at compensation data from more than 2,200 in-house counsel (including 500 GCs and chief legal officers) between 2015 and 2016. The study reveals that general counsel during this period saw a 9.6 percent increase in total compensation, with base salaries increasing a little over 1 percent and bonuses growing by a whopping 38 percent.
