Market

Making sense of mixed signals of the job market & California economy

  • On February 13, 2026
US January job numbers were surprisingly positive: unemployment remains low, and 131,000 jobs were added tothe market. But the New York Times explains these gains are mostly in healthcare and largely offset the previous year’s job cuts. In California, the Mercury News reported on mixed signals: On the plus side, California’s economy is valued at […]
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Compensation, GC

How and why do GCs get raises? Two case studies

  • On January 31, 2026
How and why do GCs get raises? Two case studies: 1. Qualcomm GC Ann Chaplin’s comp has increased the last 3 years per Corporate Counsel. In 2025 she made $9M, up from $6.9M in 2024. Of her 2025 pay, the large majority was stock (78% of total pay at $7.1M), and her base rose from […]
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Compensation, GC

GC Pay: A Case Study

  • On January 18, 2026
GC pay and raises are often a black box, so I thought it’d be helpful to look at a case study. Pay is usually a mix of base + bonus + equity (the largest component). This scenario was the case with Jennifer Salinas, GC of Cerence, a small public technology company that does AI-powered voice […]
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GC, Market

GC musical chairs

  • On January 10, 2026
Big GC moves this winter: Apple CLO Kate Adams announced she was retiring in December. Apple is replacing its CLO with Jennifer Newstead from Meta. Meta is replacing its CLO with CJ Mahoney, a VP from Microsoft. Former Microsoft CLO Hossein Nowbar, who left the company in the fall, joined ServiceNow this past week. Current […]
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Compensation, Market

Who is paying extraordinary comp in 2026?

  • On January 4, 2026
No surprise, it’s AI and OpenAI in particular. WSJ reports the company is “paying employees more than any tech startup in recent history” at $1.5M each in stock-based pay on average, which is 7x higher Google’s pre-IPO levels and 34x the average for 18 large tech companies over the last 25 years. It makes up […]
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Interview

Google-suggested questions for interviews: do they work?

  • On December 20, 2025
A former Google recruiter lists his top four questions for candidates to always ask in interviews to set themselves apart. Let’s go through them. One of them I would never ask in a Bay Area in-house interview! “What is the company’s north star for the next 12 months?” I don’t recommend this one. While it’s […]
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Compensation, GC, Inhouse

Roku & Snap land new GCs with huge stock grants

  • On December 14, 2025
Roku and Snap gave substantial equity grants to land their new GCs, per Corporate Counsel/Recorder. In November, Roku hired Chris Handman, a veteran GC including at Snap, and gave him a $9.2M equity grant that vested quarterly over two years. Two weeks after Roku’s hire, Snap hired Zachary Briers from Munger Tolles and awarded him a […]
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