As recently as 1999, the average stock option cash-out for companies’ top lawyers was close to $1.3m (£807,000), according to our 2000 GC Compensation Survey. In 1999 three lawyers alone – IBM Corporation’s Lawrence Ricciardi, Cablevision Systems Corp’s Robert Lemle and Qualcomm Inc’s Steven Altman – exercised a combined total of slightly over $50m (£31m) in stock options.
But just three years later, the love affair between general counsels (GCs) and their options has cooled. Of the 100 top-paid GCs on our 2003 compensation list, only 32 exercised options in 2002, a 22% drop from 1999. The average cash-out is down 62%, to a comparatively meager $476,272 (£295,931). While there were a few big cash-outs last year – and likely many more to follow this year and next – the $48m (£29.8n) realised in 2002 by the 100 GCs on our list did not come anywhere close to the $127m (£78.9m) reaped three years ago.
