US general counsel are raking in record bonuses, according to new research which shows that total average compensation for top general counsel averages around $1.5m (£728,000).

Bonuses for the 100 best-paid general counsel in the US have risen by around 6% in the past year. The average general counsel bonus now exceeds salaries by 79%, up 62% from 2003.

The closely-watched findings, published this month by US magazine Corporate Counsel, are based upon proxy statements filed by corporations to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Of all the Fortune 500 companies researched by the magazine, 193 listed their general counsel within their top five earners
last year.

At the end of last year the SEC made changes to the rules surrounding disclosure of executive compensation which made statements showing whether bonuses were discretionary or performance-related. In the past, companies only had to disclose restricted stock awards, whereas now all pay has to be listed.

This year only 41 general counsel in the top 100 received discretionary bonuses as opposed to 76 who now receive compensation tied to the performance of their company.

New names to the list include Jon Walton, general counsel at metal producer Allegheny Technologies, who topped the chart with a bonus of $4.7m (£2.3m), more than 10 times his annual salary of $195,000 (£95,000).

Lucrative stock awards linked to company performance have become a major part of executive compensation with James Ellis, general counsel at communications giant AT&T, receiving awards worth $6.8m (£3.3m) on top of his $2.1m (£1.02m) bonus.

While compensation in the shape of stock awards and cash bonuses has risen in the past year, other forms of award such as salaries and stock options have remained static.

Despite the ongoing backdating scandal which has rocked US companies over the past 18 months, stock options remain a popular method of compensation although the average size of rewards has decreased from $1.2m (£584,000) last year to $778,000 (£379,000) this year.

Tom Moore, an in-house recruiter at Abrahams Russell, said that while US general counsel can expect to command ever-growing compensation packages, their UK counterparts are lagging.

He said: "The general counsel at established UK corporates can expect to benefit from long-term incentive plans that will bulk up their overall package considerably, but we are yet to see anything like a 400% bonus over here."