The highest earning general counsel are those with between 15 and 30 years experience after law school graduation, acording to a recent report from Major, Lindsey & Africa. The survey also revealed that general counsel in companies where revenue exceeds $5 billion, may receive other kinds of compensation, such as equity, which does not show up in salary and bonus reports. Median base salaries for all in-house lawyers appear to exceed $200,000 at about 15 years of experience. They then are “fairly tightly clustered for the remainder of their careers,” the report said with general counsel salaries more flexible than the rest.
Pharmacy and health
General counsel total compensation by company revenue during 2014 has a median that ranges from $311,750 to $607,188 for companies with revenue up to between $4 and 5 billion. It was less - $512,588 - in companies with revenue over $5 billion. Sectors as pharmacy and health saw greater GC earnings with pharmacy gcs at $350,000 and health at $362,500. The main findings of the salary survey were:
- Total compensation for all in-house lawyers seems to be highest at 15 to 30 years after graduation.
- Base salaries paid to General Counsel are in a fairly tight range.
- General Counsel base salary does not seem to be highly correlated to years of experience.
- Like base salaries, bonuses paid to General Counsel do not correlate with years of experience.
- Median base salaries for all in-house lawyers tend to cross the $200,000 threshold at approximately 15 years of experience and remain tightly clustered for the remainder of the lawyers' careers.
- Base salaries for all in-house lawyers at a given level of experience are in a tight range across practice areas.
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