Top In-House Legal Salaries are Up, Reflecting Greater CLO Role

According to a 2012 survey of law departments by the author’s firm, total compensation (base salary, cash bonus and the value of long-term incentives) for chief legal officers averaged $1.96 million, while the median figure was $1.67 million. Mostly larger departments were represented in the survey. The median was a 32-lawyer department with more than $9 billion in worldwide revenues.

For all in-house attorney levels, average total compensation per the 2012 survey was $314,700, with a median of $257,200. Among all in-house lawyer levels, total compensation increased an average of 2.6 percent and a median one percent according to the survey.

Chief legal officers received the greatest base salary increase among all lawyer levels surveyed – an average of 5 percent and median of 3.5 percent.

This was a bigger increase than in the previous two years. In the 2010 and 2011 surveys, the base salary increase for CLOs was an average of 4.3 percent.

For the past five surveys, average base salary increases for the CLO have ranged from 2.4 percent to 5.3 percent. The value of long-term incentives awarded to chief legal officers was an average of $913,500 (median $775,000).

Opportunities for overall compensation increases for the chief legal officer and the legal staff will be in the form of variable bonuses and other incentive pay. Among the participants in the 2012 survey, 78 percent indicated that they are moving more base compensation to variable pay, and this trend is likely to continue.

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