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The Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) is the world's largest organization serving the professional and business interests of attorneys who practice in the legal departments of corporations, associations, nonprofits and other private-sector organizations around the globe.

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2023 Law Department Compensation Survey

ACC partners with Empsight to offer market-leading compensation data for in-house legal professionals. Our annual data collection is conducted in the spring and is published in late September. We offer benchmarking data for individuals (based on self-reported data) and benchmarking data for legal departments (based on company/HR-sourced data).

Download Executive Summary

2023 Compensation: Self-reported Data

 

Compensation Report Executive Summary

This report provides a high-level overview of the results of our annual compensation survey representing almost 2,000 in-house legal professionals in the United States, highlighting pay drivers, key market trends, and compensation packages across common legal job titles.

Download Executive Summary

Compensation Benchmarking Report: Self-reported Data

This report includes base salaries, short-term incentive amounts, long-term incentive targets, and total cash compensation across 24 in-house legal job positions. The results are further segmented across eight demographic segments where sufficient data are available. Review the report Table of Contents.

This report is based on data collected through an individual-level survey, which was structured as a conventional online survey and intended for single individuals to report their own compensation data.

Purchase Report

2023 Compensation: Company-sourced Data

We offer two company-sourced compensation benchmarking reports for large and mid-size companies. The reports include base salaries, short-term incentive amounts, long-term incentive amounts, and total cash compensation across dozens of in-house legal job titles. The results are further segmented across additional demographic segments where sufficient data are available.

By company-sourced we mean that as part of our data collection process we allow for the data to be reported for all positions in the legal department (rather than having individuals self-report their data). For smaller departments, this may be handled by the general counsel or a legal operations professional. For larger departments, this almost always requires HR or the compensation department to fill out the survey on behalf of all legal positions.

Large Company Report

Compensation data for 93 in-house legal positions in companies with an annual revenue of US$3B and above.

Purchase Large Company Report

Mid-Market Report

Compensation data for 36 in-house legal positions in companies with up to 10 attorneys and an annual revenue ranging from US$750M to US$5B.

Purchase Mid-Market Report

Frequently Asked Questions

  • What salary benchmarks are included in the reports?

    See the respective report webpages to view a list of metrics included in each report.

  • What demographic segments are reported?

    The compensation metrics are segmented by the following demographics in the benchmarking reports where there is sufficient data to report out:

    • Industry
    • Law Department Size – Number of Lawyers
    • Company Revenue
    • Legal Specialty – only in self-reported data reports
    • Geography – US Major Metropolitan Areas
    • Law School Class Year
    • Law School Rank – Top 20 vs Not Top 20
    • Organization Type

  • How is the data collected?

    The survey was structured to enable the collection of compensation data at both the individual level and at the company level.

    The individual-level survey is structured as a conventional online survey and is intended for a single individual to report their own compensation data.

    By company-sourced we mean that we allow for the data to be reported for all positions in the legal department. For smaller departments, this might be handled by the general counsel or legal operations professional. For larger departments, the company-level version almost always requires HR or the compensation department to fill out the survey on behalf of all legal positions.

  • When was the data collected?

    ACC and Empsight fielded the compensation survey questionnaire between May 15 and June 30, 2023, through an online survey platform. The data effective date is March 1, 2023.

  • What differentiates ACC's compensation data from others on the market?

    See the ACC Docket article Reliable Compensation Data for In-house Legal Professionals to learn about the key differentiating factors.

  • Is the data Safe Harbor Compliant?

    Yes. Our data collection and reporting standards conform with the Safe Harbor guidelines to ensure confidentiality. We recognize that compensation data is highly sensitive, and we have instituted several important practices to preserve confidentiality.

    Compensation data is not reported where there are fewer than five participants, no single organization's data represents more than 25 percent of any reported statistic, and the data must be three months old prior to reporting. Additional minimum participant thresholds are used when presenting percentiles in a statistical distribution. See our practices on our data confidentiality webpage.

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