Chart: Who Made the 2020 Top-Paid GC List?
There's a new cash king in town. Check out this year's top 100 highest-paid GCs.
July 27, 2020 at 09:00 AM
3 minute read
There's a new cash king in town. Our ranking of the highest-paid general counsel is based on total cash compensation in 2019, but most of these lawyers received big equity payouts too.
The 2020 General Counsel Compensation Report is based on Corporate Counsel affiliate ALM Intelligence's analysis of Fortune 1000 companies' 2019 Securities and Exchange Commission filings and compilation of their top lawyers' compensation data.
Where We Get Our Numbers
ALM Legal Intelligence combs through Fortune 1000 companies' proxies in order to compile a list of general counsel salaries. We then rank the 100 best-paid according to cash compensation, which includes salary, bonus and nonequity incentive compensation (a column added in 2007 on the proxy statement in which companies record bonuses for hitting performance targets).
Public companies must disclose the compensation packages for their CEOs and their four other highest-paid executives in the annual proxy statements they file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. General counsel are frequently among the highest-paid executives whose pay packages must be disclosed.
This compensation ranking is not exhaustive. Some well-paid top legal officers do not make the list simply because the five highest-paid executives earn more than the GC. Others don't make the list because their company filed its proxy statement after May 31, and Corporate Counsel couldn't research it because of our publishing deadline. Businesses in bankruptcy or that have merged in the past year may not file proxies. And Fortune 1000 corporations that are not publicly traded, such as insurance companies, don't file proxy statements with the SEC.
For our chart and rankings, we've combined bonus and nonequity incentive compensation in one column labeled "Bonus+Nonequity." The chart also includes stock, options and cash-out awards. Cash-outs include stock value realized as well as options exercised in our "Stock Awards" column in an effort to paint a more complete picture of equity compensation.
We have a new face leading the list this year as America's top-paid legal executive. See what other top legal department leaders made our list. Our survey ranks GCs by total cash compensation, which is a combination of base salary, cash bonus and nonequity incentives.
Read the full story behind the numbers here.
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