ALM Legal Intelligence

GC Compensation Survey

Corporate Counsel Magazine's annual salary survey of the 100 highest paid General Counsels at major corporations. The survey, which appears each year in the August issue, includes the name, rank, salary, bonus, and non-equity incentive compensation.

Methodology/Sources:
By law, public companies must disclose the compensation packages for their CEOs and their four other highest-paid executives in the annual proxy statements they file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. General Counsels are frequently among the top highest-paid executives whose pay packages must be disclosed.

Corporate Counsel Magazine combs through Fortune 500 companies' proxies in order to compile the list. They then rank the 100 best-paid according to cash compensation, which includes salary, bonus and non-equity incentive compensation (a column added two years ago on the proxy statement in which companies record bonuses for hitting performance targets). Data in the spreadsheet also includes stock and option awards.

Note data from additional years may be available in our archives. Please contact customer service for more information at almlegalintel@alm.com or 888-770-5647.