Compensation benchmarks · August 2026
In-house legal salary data by role and city
Total compensation benchmarks — base plus bonus and equity — for the 12 most common in-house legal, compliance and contracts titles, across 14 US metros. Every page shows the median, the typical range, and how the number changes once cost of living is applied.
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General Counsel salary
Owns the entire legal function and reports to the CEO or board.
$351,000
national median total compensation
Chief Legal Officer salary
Executive officer role, typically at larger or public companies.
$419,000
national median total compensation
Deputy General Counsel salary
Second-in-command to the GC, often with a functional specialty.
$283,000
national median total compensation
Associate General Counsel salary
Senior individual contributor or small-team lead within the legal department.
$238,000
national median total compensation
In-House Counsel salary
Core legal department role advising business teams directly.
$199,000
national median total compensation
Corporate Counsel salary
Commercial contracting and day-to-day corporate legal support.
$186,000
national median total compensation
Privacy Counsel salary
Owns data protection, GDPR/CCPA compliance and product privacy review.
$218,000
national median total compensation
Litigation Counsel salary
Manages disputes, outside counsel and pre-litigation risk in-house.
$211,000
national median total compensation
Employment Counsel salary
Advises HR on employment law, investigations and workforce actions.
$197,000
national median total compensation
IP Counsel salary
Owns patent, trademark and IP strategy for the business.
$227,000
national median total compensation
Compliance Officer salary
Runs the compliance program, training, monitoring and reporting.
$179,000
national median total compensation
Contracts Manager salary
Owns contract lifecycle, redlines within playbook and CLM operations.
$132,000
national median total compensation
Metros covered
How these numbers are built
Each figure is a total-compensation median: base salary plus target bonus and the annualized value of equity. Metro medians come from MaxMyPay's legal and compliance benchmark set, indexed against open-role volume and year-over-year movement in each market, then adjusted per title using seniority multipliers observed across in-house legal departments. Cost-of-living figures normalize each metro to a national index of 100. These are directional market estimates for planning and negotiation — not offers, and not a substitute for your own valuation.
Get your own number, not the median
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