Dive Brief:

• In-house counsel saw an average merit pay raise of 3.8% in 2023, according to compensation survey data released Tuesday by the Association of Corporate Counsel. About 16% of the lawyers got a raise of less than 1% or none at all, while another 16% said their merit pay raise was 4%-5%.
• Sixteen percent of lawyers said they received a promotion, with slightly more than half (51%) of them getting a salary increase between zero and 10%. Nearly 1 in 5 lawyers (18%) got a raise of more than 20%. Among the lawyers who were promoted, most of those (19%) were fully remote workers, compared to 16% in a hybrid schedule and 15% who worked in the office full-time.
• One-fifth of in-house lawyers expect they’ll switch to a new job within the next year, according to the 2024 annual survey, which had nearly 1,900 corporate law respondents. That’s slightly higher than the 16% who said the same in 2023.

Dive Insight:

In terms of lawyers’ work arrangements, little changed from 2022, with 57% working a hybrid schedule — typically three days in an office and two at home — and 26% fully remote, according to the survey. In 2022, 58% were doing a hybrid work schedule, while a quarter were fully remote. 

About three-quarters (74%) of lawyers who work remotely full-time reported that this arrangement worked well for their work-life balance. Those in the office full-time were least satisfied with the balance, with less than one third (32%) of the attorneys said the same.

GCs at companies with revenue above $5 billion earn 66% more in base salary and 144% more in total compensation than GCs at companies with sales under $1 billion. The total compensation gap between those two groups decreased 10% from 2022, while the salary component gap rose about 16%, according to the ACC.

Most in-house lawyers, 75%, said they previously worked at a law firm. Their biggest challenge moving in-house was the increased focus on business objectives, cited by two-thirds of the respondents, and the need to work on a broader range of legal issues (62%). More than half, 53%, said they found the need to build relationships with internal clients to be challenging.

Former law firm attorneys said the most valuable skill they had learned for their in-house role was the ability to make sound legal risk assessments (67%) and client communication and negotiation (66%). 

Among 22 corporate perquisites, a paid membership for a professional organization was the most common (79%), followed by standing desks (57%) and travel for industry events (51%). On-site daycare was the least common perk for in-house counsel.

The compensation benchmarking data are from 1,887 participants and covers base salaries, short-term incentives, long-term incentive targets and total cash compensation across 25 legal job titles.

The association releases an executive summary of the survey results, assisted by HR consulting firm Empsight International, with more detailed findings available for purchase.