The research, by HBR, also revealed the average base salary was $188,758 with average total compensation for lawyers across all levels was $316,636. The average cash bonuse for all levels was $67,014. The figures also revealed that 55 per cent of the legal departments taking part increased the number of lawyers in their department in the past year. Meanwhile internal legal spending has increased by five per cent whilst spending on external lawyers has dropped by two per cent.