Location, Location, Compensation

Key Takeaways:

Compensation for general counsel is often shaped less by geography and more by how an organization positions its most senior legal leader. Lawyers viewed as enterprise leaders are more likely to participate in executive compensation structures, while those seen primarily as support functions may face lower earning potential regardless of market. The analysis also explores why traditional compensation comparisons break down in private equity and certain financial services environments.

• Compensation tends to follow organizational influence, with legal leaders who hold strategic business roles gaining access to equity and long-term incentive programs.
• Public company disclosures can provide insight into how organizations value the legal function, particularly when senior legal leaders are included among top executive officers.
• In private equity, hedge funds, and similar sectors, compensation structures such as carried interest can significantly alter earning potential and diminish traditional geographic pay differences.

I work in an odd spot: Based in London, employed by an American firm, and working on GC searches around the world. It offers a useful vantage point for the question I am asked more than any other by general counsel on this side of the pond, “Are we underpaid relative to the Americans?”

The answer is a circuitous “yes”. But the size of the pay cheque has far less to do with your market or your skill across a negotiating table than with a different question that few think to ask: “Where does your organisation believe the lawyer belongs?”