In-house lawyers are bringing home fatter paychecks.

The average annual salary of corporate counsel in all positions across all industries increased 4.4% from 2017 to 2018, according to the latest In-House Counsel Compensation Report from legal recruitment firm BarkerGilmore.

“As compensation rises and long-term incentives and company benefits are factored in, becoming an in-house lawyer is an even more attractive career path,” said BarkerGilmore founding partner John Gilmore.

Unfortunately, the online survey of more than 2,000 U.S.-based in-house lawyers also showed that the gender pay gap persists, though it appears to be closing. On average, women in-house counsel bring home 85% of their male counterparts' pay, according to the report.  

The gap is most striking among general counsel. Their gender pay disparity was 17% in 2018, when men had a total average compensation of $630,000, compared with $537,500 for women. But that's still a 5% improvement over 2017.

Also somewhat encouraging is the report's finding that the base pay for female in-house counsel at all levels increased at a rate of 4.5% last year, compared with 4.3% for men. The average total compensation last year for all women in-house counsel sampled in the survey was $313,782. For men it was $368,000.  

“As predicted, the data show that the in-house counsel pay gap between men and women is beginning to narrow,” said Bob Barker, managing partner of BarkerGilmore. “While many have been slow to buy into the practice of not asking job applicants for current compensation, the new legislation [enacting pay history bans] is showing signs of achieving its objective.”

For the past three years, in-house lawyers for public companies had significantly higher salaries than those in the private sector. At the general counsel level, the disparity in total compensation was nearly 50% in 2018.

GCs for public technology companies had the highest pay rates, reporting average total compensation of $919,000. Their counterparts in the private tech sector made $405,000 on average.

GCs for public professional services, industrial and manufacturing, life sciences and financial companies all made more than $800,000 on average.

With an average compensation rate of $657,000, health care was the lowest-paying industry for GCs in the public sector. For lower level in-house counsel, the professional services and consumer industries paid the least.

Other findings from the report include:

  • Grass is greener syndrome? Despite the finding that most in-house lawyers are getting larger checks, 41% of all respondents believed their pay was “below or significantly below” that of their peers at other firms.
  • Perhaps unsurprisingly, 38% of in-house counsel indicated the desire for better pay would spur them to consider taking a new position within the next year.
  • In-house lawyers in the financial and health care industries were most likely to be among the aforementioned potential job seekers.