Compensation, GC

GC/CLO total cash comp?

  • On June 13, 2026
What total cash comp do GCs and CLOs currently make? At public companies: 25th percentile: $574K 50th percentile: $739K (compared to private companies: $500K) 75th percentile: $1M Source: Corporate Counsel, June 2026.
Read More
Compensation, GC

What’s going with in-house comp? Are people getting raises?

  • On May 30, 2026
What’s going on with in-house compensation now? Are raises on the table? Yes. Currently the average GC raise is 3.5%, 3% for managing or senior counsel per Barker Gilmore. Who gets paid most? GCs at large public and private PE companies. Their “biggest gains are increasingly tied to company scale, ownership structure and access to […]
Read More
Compensation, GC

The $30M GC: What to Know

  • On May 2, 2026
What to know about the GC making $30M: Kent Walker’s total comp at Alphabet has stayed consistent around $30M ($29.13 last year, $30.17 the year before). What’s the breakdown? Base is $1M, which has remained the same since 2022. The rest is in equity. Why did comp drop slightly? It was nothing personal. The company […]
Read More
Compensation, GC

Big company GC compensation trend: giant stock grants ($50-70M)!

  • On April 18, 2026
The most recent big company GC compensation trend is giant stock grants, in the $50M to $70M range! Apple recruited Jennifer Newstead from Meta with a $77M grant, and Meta landed CJ Mahoney from Microsoft with a $50M grant. Why are companies offering such big grants? The GC role has expanded to include strategy, counsel, […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
GC

Who Gets the GC Job at Fortune 500 Companies?

  • On February 7, 2025
Law.com reports insiders get the job 49% of the time and outside candidates 51%. Let’s look at the stats: 13.6% (68 out of 500) of the Fortune companies changed GCs in 2024. 33 were filled with internal candidates, 35 with outside candidates. Apparently it’s “harder for internal candidates to land legal chief roles” now because […]
Read More