TheCorporateCounsel.net

In my experience, there is no more widely read document than one that reveals how much others in similar situations make. It’s the bling baby. $$$. So folks should be excited about Equilar’s new study on general counsel pay at Fortune 1000 companies (which isn’t publicly available fyi; here’s Equilar’s site – and here’s last year’s findings). Here are the key findings:

– How Much – The median total compensation for General Counsels, broken out by revenue range was:
o Under $500 Million: $677k
o $500 Million to $1 Billion: $808k
o $1 Billion to $ 5 Billion: $1.1 million
o $5 Billion to $15 Billion: $1.8 million
o Over $15 Billion: $2.7 million

– #2 Lawyers Make About Half – Across all of the companies, #2 general counsels received 49% as much total compensation as top general counsels, on average, and the #2 general counsel received 51% as much as the top general counsel when examining median compensation.

– Smaller Companies Rely More on Salary – The ratio of median salary to median equity and long-term incentive compensation was 1.2 and 1.0 for the two lowest revenue ranges, and 0.7, 0.6 and 0.4 for the three highest revenue ranges. (Listed in ascending order of size.)

– Performance Awards More Common at Larger Companies – 78% of general counsels at companies in the highest revenue range received performance-based stock, compared to only 22% of executives in the lowest revenue range and 54% of executives in the second lowest revenue range.

– Perks – 62% of general counsels were eligible for perquisites, including 83% of executives at companies with over $15 billion in revenue.

Will We Ever See a Public Benefit Corporation? Yes, We Have The First (In Brazil)

Just as Lois Yurow muses in this blog whether it would be viable for a public company to become a benefit corporation – or for a benefit corporation to go public – comes the news of the first public B corp: Natura. However, Natura is not a US public company – but rather a Brazilian company. And as noted in this Cooley blog, Delaware Chief Justice Strine recently wrote that article praising the B Corp concept.

Meanwhile, B Lab has now certified 1200 B Corps – and Kickstarter has become a B Corp, as well as Green Mountain Power, a public utility. A lot of action in this area…

Notes from the ABA Fall Meeting: Reg D, Audit Reports & More

In his blog, Mike Gettelman has been providing a number of entries covering the recent ABA Business Section meeting in DC. Check it out!

– Broc Romanek