Wall Street lawyers now often make more than bankers according to a recent article from WSJ: “Equity partners at top law firms can make around $3 million or more a year,” and top rainmaking partners make more than $15 million. Why are lawyers making so much on Wall Street? While banker pay has been stagnating, lawyer pay has zoomed up because lawyers are “no longer relegated to simply marking up contracts.” Instead, they can “serv[e] as sounding boards for corporate executives as they clash with regulators or wrestle with thorny issues such as succession planning. They have also received an outsize amount of work from the rise of private equity, a client base that was nowhere near as active 20 years ago.” Additionally, law firm compensation structure is no longer lockstep, resulting in bidding wars.

My focus is in-house in the San Francisco Bay Area, and top lawyers here are also in that stratosphere. American Lawyer’s Corporate Counsel publication reported in 2023 that “Apple General Counsel Kate Adams received $27.1 million in total compensation in the fiscal year that ended in September.” The article reported as points of comparison “Meta General Counsel Jennifer Newstead received total compensation of $19.1 million in 2019,” and “Alphabet’s chief legal officer, Kent Walker received total compensation of $14.7 million in 2021. A year earlier, he received nearly $51 million.” Corporate Counsel also reported in 2023 that Netflix’s “David Hyman raked in more than $13 million in total comp in 2022.”  We’ll see what will happen fiscal year 2023 as the tech market has taken a beating.