Let's talk in-house salaries Forum

[Anonymous User]

6th year biglaw associate
M&A at a V10 in a major market
Moving to a deputy GC-level position (that's not my title)

$300k base
20% target cash bonus (based on company performance, last year they told me they didn't hit target for anyone)
no equity
Good 401k match good medical, etc

[Anonymous User]

6th year biglaw associate
M&A at a V10 in a major market
Moving to a deputy GC-level position (that's not my title)

$300k base
20% target cash bonus (based on company performance, last year they told me they didn't hit target for anyone)
no equity
Good 401k match good medical, etc

Great exit. May I ask what market/industry?

[Anonymous User]

6th year biglaw associate
M&A at a V10 in a major market
Moving to a deputy GC-level position (that's not my title)

$300k base
20% target cash bonus (based on company performance, last year they told me they didn't hit target for anyone)
no equity
Good 401k match good medical, etc

Great exit. May I ask what market/industry?

Major non-NY market
B2B services business (anything more specific would probably out me if someone who knows me saw it)

[Anonymous User]

What's the ceiling for all-in compensation at, say, a FAANG/Microsoft (excluding general counsel/chief legal officer roles)? Basically, what's the max you can make staying there for life without rising to C-suite/management? $500-700K range? Is seven figures possible?

[Anonymous User]

5 years - specialty practice, major market
190k base
100k RSU
15% bonus
Permanent remote option after three years

Looking at about $250k first year.

[Anonymous User]

Left a niche practice area as a 4th year in big law.

Senior Counsel at an energy company in a major market
$50k signing bonus
Ability to work remote post-pandemic up to 80% of the time
Base: $225k
Annual Bonus: 20%
No equity since it's a private company
401k match, full medical, dental, vision, etc. paid for me and my family

[Anonymous User]

That's quite good for a 4th year, especially remote. How is the 80% calculated, in the office 1 day a week or 1 month out of every 4 or 5?

[Anonymous User]

That's quite good for a 4th year, especially remote. How is the 80% calculated, in the office 1 day a week or 1 month out of every 4 or 5?

I need to go into the office 1 day a week of my choosing.

[Anonymous User]

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[Anonymous User]

What's the ceiling for all-in compensation at, say, a FAANG/Microsoft (excluding general counsel/chief legal officer roles)? Basically, what's the max you can make staying there for life without rising to C-suite/management? $500-700K range? Is seven figures possible?

Since these are large companies, there'd be quite a gap between C-suite and lower-level management.

For at least one of these companies and not accounting for stock appreciation, $500-700k would be in range for a mid/senior-level attorney. Seven figures typically would require at least a Director-level title, which is usually the role above line managers and relatively hard to attain even for senior attorneys.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone know how common signing bonuses to match pro-rated year end bonus are? Eg BigLaw bonus will be $80k. I go in-house halfway through the year. In-house company offers $40k signing bonus.

Anyone seen that?

[Anonymous User]

Anyone know how common signing bonuses to match pro-rated year end bonus are? Eg BigLaw bonus will be $80k. I go in-house halfway through the year. In-house company offers $40k signing bonus.

Anyone seen that?

I moved in house in November and got the company to match my full year-end biglaw bonus with a signing bonus. Probably not the norm, but not impossible.

[nealric]

What's the ceiling for all-in compensation at, say, a FAANG/Microsoft (excluding general counsel/chief legal officer roles)? Basically, what's the max you can make staying there for life without rising to C-suite/management? $500-700K range? Is seven figures possible?

Since these are large companies, there'd be quite a gap between C-suite and lower-level management.

For at least one of these companies and not accounting for stock appreciation, $500-700k would be in range for a mid/senior-level attorney. Seven figures typically would require at least a Director-level title, which is usually the role above line managers and relatively hard to attain even for senior attorneys.

It may be helpful to clarify whether you are excluding stock compensation or just stock appreciation. Not in tech, so I'm not familiar with FAANG salaries, but the higher you get in just about any large corporation, the more of your compensation is going to be equity based. Equity based comp can be hard to value because it's so company specific.

At least in law, it would normally be just the GC/CLO and that person's direct reports (titles may vary) that would be all in for the high six figures. There are other highly compensated jobs, but that would involved different roles than being a lawyer. Even those top law jobs involve managing people. An individual contributor role paying $700k would be extremely rare. You'd need to be some sort of unicorn SME in very high demand.

[Anonymous User]

What's the ceiling for all-in compensation at, say, a FAANG/Microsoft (excluding general counsel/chief legal officer roles)? Basically, what's the max you can make staying there for life without rising to C-suite/management? $500-700K range? Is seven figures possible?

Since these are large companies, there'd be quite a gap between C-suite and lower-level management.

For at least one of these companies and not accounting for stock appreciation, $500-700k would be in range for a mid/senior-level attorney. Seven figures typically would require at least a Director-level title, which is usually the role above line managers and relatively hard to attain even for senior attorneys.

It may be helpful to clarify whether you are excluding stock compensation or just stock appreciation. Not in tech, so I'm not familiar with FAANG salaries, but the higher you get in just about any large corporation, the more of your compensation is going to be equity based. Equity based comp can be hard to value because it's so company specific.

At least in law, it would normally be just the GC/CLO and that person's direct reports (titles may vary) that would be all in for the high six figures. There are other highly compensated jobs, but that would involved different roles than being a lawyer. Even those top law jobs involve managing people. An individual contributor role paying $700k would be extremely rare. You'd need to be some sort of unicorn SME in very high demand.

Previous poster here - so the $500-700k range was in reply to the OP's question about all-in comp. number (base salary + bonus + equity). Tech. companies generally have a larger component in equity. As noted above, this is not accounting for stock appreciation after grant. I agree that equity could be hard to calculate but stock grant values are usually fairly stable (if not appreciating) and clear-cut for FAANG companies.

Your sentiment in the second paragraph also makes sense but note we are talking about a very niche set of companies (FAANG), which are themselves located in very high COL locations in the U.S. And my number is only for one of those companies (and $700k is at the high end of the range). FAANG companies typically have hundreds of attorneys so as I alluded to in my earlier post, even a few levels below a GC/CLO's direct reports could be director-level individuals managing many attorneys. So the scale of these companies is fairly unique.

At the company in question (similar to many other tech companies), compensation is mostly based on the job level not on whether someone is a people manager or not. Of course, certain levels, say starting at Director, may be nearly impossible to get unless someone is also a people manager. But I think OP was mostly interested about attorneys who are senior by tenure, whether they are line-managers or ICs, not someone higher-up the managerial chain.

[Anonymous User]

Left big law as a 5th year associate to go in-house at larger financial institution in non-NYC major market:

$180k Base
$50k Bonus (Target)
401k Matching (longer vesting period) and small ESPP discount
Usually 8-6pm; no weekend work, evening emails somewhat regular, but very rare for them to be urgent or cause me to have to get back on computer

Not sure what yearly raises will look like, but seems like promotion to the next level up (Executive Director) would be the next major increase. Unclear how long that usually takes.

[Anonymous User]

Any insight into VP level legal salaries at non-tech Fortune 500 companies? Sectors like consumer goods (P&G), retail (Target), big oil, food, etc.

[Anonymous User]

Any insight into VP level legal salaries at non-tech Fortune 500 companies? Sectors like consumer goods (P&G), retail (Target), big oil, food, etc.

At my former F500 healthcare company, an attorney at a VP level would run one of the major teams and generally, though not always, report directly to the GC. I got a glimpse of comp for a few of them due to a matter I was working on comp seemed to be in the 300-350k range for salary/bonus, not including other incentive payments or retirement matches.

It generally seemed like our VPs made about what a junior partner would make at one of the good firms in town, albeit with a better quality of life.

[Anonymous User]

Left big law after about 4-5 years. Moved to a non-legal role at a tech company that uses my legal training. Completely remote, flexible hours. Very little emails. Matching 401k at 100% up to 6% contribution. $150k, with a $150k discretionary bonus. 9-5 hours. Full health care obviously. Honestly, couldn't be happier with the exit.

[nealric]

Any insight into VP level legal salaries at non-tech Fortune 500 companies? Sectors like consumer goods (P&G), retail (Target), big oil, food, etc.

At least for "big oil", law tends not to use VP titles. There's GC level and then AGC/Deputy GC. The GC typically has a C-suite title, so the step down is VP equivalent. VPs are typically mid to high 6 figures all-in.

[thisismytlsuername]

Left big law after about 4-5 years. Moved to a non-legal role at a tech company that uses my legal training. Completely remote, flexible hours. Very little emails. Matching 401k at 100% up to 6% contribution. $150k, with a $150k discretionary bonus. 9-5 hours. Full health care obviously. Honestly, couldn't be happier with the exit.

You guys hiring?

[Anonymous User]

For those of you that are generally working around 9-6 hours with little to no work on weekends, are any of you in corporate/M&A departments in-house? I'm wondering if the nature of having pretty strictly M&A training pigeon holes you to potentially working weekends forever, whether you're in a big firm, in-house, or otherwise. I have a friend in-house that generally likes it, but says he still gets weekend fire drills, so wondering if that's the norm.

Would love to hear any anecdotes for those that are in-house in an M&A role.

[Anonymous User]

When considering in-house opportunities, are there things I should be considering in terms of the equity component at a startup/private company vs publicly traded companies? It seems like there's a lot of potential upside to startup stock, but it's also possible that you end up holding the stock for a long period of time (indefinitely) or in the worst scenario the value goes to $0 eventually. In larger public companies the equity component seems more "real" in that as soon as the stock vests I could spend that money if I wanted/needed to, and even though the stock price may dip, it seems like there's a pretty low likelihood of the stock truly being worth nothing.

Just wondering how that factors into considering different roles and negotiating the compensation.