In-House Counsel

General Counsel Can Take Home Millions (But Will Still Endlessly Gripe About Your Bill!)

Chief legal officers made bank last year.

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981450Surveys of corporate law departments describe increasingly tight budgets and the undue pressure Biglaw puts them under with every rate increase. Yet, somehow all that budget pressure hasn’t managed to dampen the bottom line of chief legal officers themselves, who continue to rack up bit paydays.

Corporate Counsel just released its annual general counsel compensation chart and times are good for top attorneys, with the top ten all topping $15 million and the highest paid GC, Zoom’s Aparna Bawa, collecting $28 million. Though Bawa is also the COO, which must be great when you know legal is always going to agree.

Of course this is just among GCs we know about. Private companies aren’t issuing public reports and the SEC only requires disclosure of a corporation’s top 5 paid officers — which usually includes a legal officer, but not always.

Viet Dinh’s tenure at Fox may be ending amid hundreds of millions in legal settlements caused by the company’s fast and loose relationship with reality, but he still gets to occupy the top 25, coming in at 23 with over $11 million.

This GC thing seems like a pretty good gig.

General Counsel Compensation Chart: Who Made the 2023 Top-Paid GC List? [Corporate Counsel]

Earlier: Fox News Parts Ways With Lawyer After Coughing Up $787 Million And Counting

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HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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