Soaring bonuses and stock awards are driving compensation for elite GCs in the US to record levels. But can the boom survive the credit crunch? And will Europe’s top lawyers ever reap similar rewards? Amy Miller reports
Give Gary Lynch credit for making a dramatic entrance. The chief legal officer for New York-based Morgan Stanley debuted on Corporate Counsel’s annual survey of general counsel compensation with a whopping $6.3m (£3.15m) bonus. That large pot of cash earned him the number two spot overall on our elite roster. A look at America’s 100 top-paid general counsel in 2007, as measured by the 2008 general counsel (GC) compensation survey, shows that he’s in good company. Simply put, the top legal officers at Fortune 500 companies raked it in. And that was true even for those heading the law departments at such financial institutions as Morgan Stanley, which are reeling after the collapse of the subprime mortgage market.
