Blackstone Group's general counsel has emerged as one of the best-paid lawyers in the world, according to public documents showing he received 2010 compensation of $7.3m (£4.5m), writes Corporate Counsel.

According to the private equity giant's annual filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), its chief legal officer John Finley was Blackstone's fourth best-paid executive with a package that included $6m (£3.7m) in the form of restricted stock awards.

The Harvard Law graduate joined Blackstone last September after 22 years with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, where he was most recently head of its global M&A team. The company guaranteed him a cash salary of $1m (£617,000) in 2010 and $3m (£1.85m) in 2011. The total compensation package was likely a significant increase for Finley as Simpson Thacher's average compensation for equity partners in 2009 was $2.42m (£1.49m).

The package also makes Finley one of the best-paid lawyers in the world, either in private practice or among chief legal officers at America's largest companies.

"Blackstone exited 2010 in a stronger position than ever before, with all of our businesses experiencing higher levels of activity," said Stephen Schwarzman, chairman and chief executive officer, in a release announcing the company's year-end results. "The carrying values of our investment funds continued to increase sharply, driving our best quarterly earnings result in nearly four years."

"Private equity is well-known for closely tying pay to performance across the top of the house," said Robert Jackson, associate professor of law at Columbia Law School and a corporate governance specialist. "So it is no surprise that a lawyer at this level is capable of earning amounts like these in a strong year."

David Lewin, a professor at UCLA's Anderson School of Management who has studied executive compensation, agreed that it is not surprising that Blackstone pays its top lawyer well. However, Lewin said that it is unusual that Finley ranked so highly among Blackstone executives in terms of compensation. "You'll find that very rarely is a company GC listed as one of the top five paid executives or employees of a company," said Lewin.

In a section of its SEC filing titled 'Overview of Compensation Philosophy and Program' Blackstone stated: "We believe our current compensation and benefit allocations are best in class and are consistent with companies in the alternative asset management and financial advisory industries."