Data for small departments on the mix between salaries, bonuses and incentive compensation

The ACC Empsight Small Law Compensation Survey provides data about general counsel of law departments with fewer than 10 lawyers. The data comes from ACC Docket, Vol. 27, Jan./Feb. 2009 at 8. The Survey gives the mix for them between base salary, cash bonus, and long term incentive (LTI) amounts.

For solo general counsel, the mix last year was 62 percent base, 25 percent cash bonus, and 13 percent LTI. For general counsel in departments with multiple lawyers, the mix was 48 percent base, 19 percent cash bonus, and 33 percent LTI.

In other words, as a general counsel’s responsibilities grow to managing other lawyers, which generally means they work for larger companies, not only does the base salary grow but also the mix of compensation shifts toward more contingent recognition of personal and corporate performance.