Which industries pay lawyers best? Tech of course!
- On August 2, 2025
Which industries pay the best? Tech.
- The top 5 best paid legal heads are all at tech companies. At #1, Alphabet paid Kent Walker $30.2M (compared to $27.3M in 2023). Broadcom is second, paying Mark Brazeal $29M (compared to $15.5M in 2023). (See https://www.law.com/corpcounsel/2025/07/28/2025-gc-pay-report-at-top-of-rankings-techs-rising-fortunes-crowd-out-other-industries/)
- Of 544 legal heads tracked by Corporate Counsel, the majority (56%) made between $2 and $5M. The median pay was almost $3M, which is 8.6% higher than the previous year.
- GC pay increases were due to different reasons, e.g., M&A activity (Broadcom), increased valuation from AI (Nvidia GC made 75% more, his pay rising to $19.2M), and timing of stock awards (Amazon’s David Zapolsky made over $25M in stock awards, compared to $372K(!) the year before).
- Non-tech industries on the list that compensate their legal heads well include finance (e.g., Goldman Sachs), media (Disney), telecom (AT&T), and pharma (Moderna).\
- Law.com’s report was based on SEC disclosures, which are limited to the top 5 most highly compensated executives, so Meta’s Jennifer Newstead and Microsoft’s Hossein Nowbar were not included.
0 comments on Which industries pay lawyers best? Tech of course!