Law Department Management Blog
Whether or not money is the root of all evil, money is certainly at the root of many posts here. I have collected compensation-related posts since my last metaposts and organized them by several topics.
Past the paycheck, or what do in-house lawyers earn in addition to their salary (See my post of Jan. 20, 2009: does Black-Scholes give a value for restricted stock awards; Nov. 27, 2010: how to handle a request by an executive to reward a lawyer with a bonus; Nov. 30, 2010 #2: car allowances; June 29, 2011: general counsel and potential conflicts of interest based on options held; and Oct. 10, 2011: in-house counsel like their jobs partly because of equity grants.).
Sources of data, or how can you find compensation figures (See my post of Jan. 13, 2011: MySalary.com; Jan. 18, 2011: online salary calculator from Robert Half; Jan. 21, 2011: another online salary site; and Oct. 24, 2011: participation numbers during 2007-2011 in ACC/Empsight compensation surveys.).
Benchmarks, or what analysts do to comp figures (See my post of Sept. 1, 2009: cost-of-living indices normalize compensation figures; Feb. 4, 2010: adjustments to lawyers per billion; and April 30, 2011: GC compensation and legal team cost per hour suggest value of law departments.).
Cost control, or how have general counsel clamped down on pay (See my post of April 20, 2009: salary freezes for lawyers still employed; Nov. 29, 2009: salary freezes as cost control measure; Dec. 3, 2009: end of hefty annual increases in total cash compensation; and Oct. 19, 2011: IBM hires straight from law school.).
General Counsel, or the pay of the top lawyer (See my post of Jan. 18, 2009 #2: GC severance arrangements; Jan. 18, 2009: higher base pay for general counsel as they manage more attorneys; Feb. 5, 2009 #6: tax consequences of million dollar salaries; March 1, 2009: general counsel compensation and corporate governance; Aug. 4, 2009 #4: percentage of GCs among top five highest paid officers; March 2, 2010: GCs who report to the CEO earn more; and July 30, 2010: Chief Legal Officers have done less well on pay than CFOs and CIOs over past five years.).
Catchall, or everything else (See my post of Feb. 12, 2009: median total cash compensation varies by legal specialty; Feb. 12, 2009: wide swings in specialists’ cash compensation; July 4, 2009: specialists upset comp equity; Sept. 1, 2009: linkage of pay and productivity; Oct. 20, 2009: most of the rise in total legal spending was from compensation increases; April 6, 2010: “role-sizing” to match responsibilities to titles and comp; April 26, 2010: compensation is probably not distributed by productivity of lawyers; and Oct. 25, 2010: total income for heads of IP groups (circa 2004).).