Those 39 general counsel made an average of $1,869,162 in 2001, including stock options with a present value of $911,338. The total is up 10.4 percent from the average of $1,692,347 earned in 2000 by 40 general counsel at large Texas corporations, but still 21.4 percent below the average of $2,379,526 paid to 31 Texas general counsel in 1999.
Those sums are mind-boggling, but unfortunately for many of the general counsel, they can’t go to the bank with much of it. The stock options granted to 25 of the general counsel in 2001 are worthless — under water in financial lingo — because of declining stock markets this year. A comparison of stock prices on Sept. 24 and the strike prices for the options given to the general counsel reveals that only eight of them received options in 2001 that could be exercised today, assuming there are no other restrictions to exercising them.
