Denise Keane.
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As part of our 2017 General Counsel Compensation Survey, Corporate Counsel affiliate ALM Legal Intelligence broke down the data to reveal the top earning female legal department leaders. The GCs were ranked by total cash compensation, which includes salary, bonus and other non-equity pay. The rankings are based on company proxy filings from fiscal year 2016.

This year, the list of top paid women is led by Denise Keane of Altria Group, who was also the highest compensated GC in our overall rankings. Unfortunately, despite Keane's place at the top, women are still underrepresented on the overall general counsel list– only one other female legal department head cracked the broader top ten.

We can hope for better compensation for women legal department leaders next year, but for now, let's count down the ten best paid female GCs on our list:

Denise Keane

Denise Keane of Altria Group Inc., who also topped the overall GC compensation rankings, brought home an impressive $9,000,500 in total cash compensation. A great deal of her pay came in the form of bonuses that may have been tied to her departure from the company after more than 40 years


Laureen Seeger

American Express Company legal boss Laureen Seeger came in behind Keane this year with a total cash haul of $6,193,000. Seeger joined American Express in 2014 from McKesson Corporation and succeeded Louise Parent, another notable female legal department leader, who had been with the credit card company for 37 years.


Maryanne Lavan