Dive Brief:
- The top 25% of legal operations professionals earn $240,000 annually, which is up 2.5% from last year, according to a Brightflag survey. Heads of legal operations report earning $192,000 on average.
- Nearly three-quarters of legal ops professionals (73%) report receiving a bonus and nearly half (48%) report receiving equity, the annual report from the AI-powered legal operations platform found.
- Women, transgender, and non-binary/non-conforming heads of legal operations earn 25% less total compensation than men on average, according to Brightflag’s 2024 Corporate Legal Operations Compensation Report. The survey was conducted in partnership with Legal Operators, which is a community of legal ops professionals.
Dive Insight:
Another key finding in the report is that legal operations compensation “is not correlated with job title.”
For example, the total cash compensation for respondents with the title of “director, legal operations” ranged from as low as $71,000 to as high as $380,000.
Additionally, survey respondents with the title “legal operations manager” reported total cash compensation ranging from $52,000 to $237,000.
Overall, eight respondents reported total compensation in excess of $500,000 a year, with the highest paid respondent making $1 million.
“The top-compensated respondents to this year’s survey prove that the pinnacle of legal operations is high, and highly lucrative,” the Brightflag report said.
Factors that appear to drive compensation for head of legal operations roles include the size of the legal department, with those in larger departments reporting higher compensation.
“For all other legal operations roles — including middle management ones — the main driver of compensation is years of experience,” the report said.
Three-quarters of the survey respondents identified as women compared to 23% identifying as men. However, the report highlights that “women’s dominance in legal operations representation is not translating to pay equality.”
In addition to the pay disparity for head of legal operations roles, women, transgender, and non-binary/non-conforming professionals in other legal operations roles are underpaid 17% relative to men, the Brightflag report found.
The survey report also found that total compensation for non-white heads of legal operations is 9% lower on average than for heads of legal operations identifying as white, a reversal of the pay equality seen in last year’s report. Compensation for other legal operations roles along ethnic lines is roughly equal, the report said.
Brightflag surveyed hundreds of legal operations professionals from January 16 through February 23. Participants work in 12 countries and 39 states, and they span more than 17 verticals.
