Who Are The 20 Highest-Paid General Counsel? (2022)

After a pandemic-driven dip in 2020, GC and CLO salaries bounced back in 2021.

(photo by Peter Dazeley via Getty Images)

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In 2020, Biglaw and in-house compensation diverged. It turned out to be a surprisingly good year for Biglaw attorneys, associates and partners alike; demand for legal services remained robust while certain costs declined, thanks in part to remote work. Meanwhile, pay for in-house lawyers took a financial hit, reflecting the challenges that many companies and industries faced during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. It was hard for a company to justify maintaining (or raising) lawyer pay when other executives, including CEOs, took highly publicized pay cuts.

In 2021, corporate legal departments caught up on comp, at least in terms of pay for the top attorneys—i.e., general counsel and chief legal officers. In the past few weeks, we received in-house compensation reports from Corporate Counsel magazine and the legal search firm of Major, Lindsey & Africa, and both showed nice increases.

Let’s take a look at the numbers—including, of course, salaries and bonuses for the 20 highest-paid GCs and CLOs.