Lateral Link’s Post

Curious about GC compensation in the Fortune 500 arena? Check out this analysis in the linked article from our Lateral Link Blog.

👀 Read our exclusive analysis on General Counsel compensation in Fortune 500 Companies: 'New numbers reveal the average base salary for General Counsels at Fortune 500 companies to be $583,250.' Visit our website to read the full article and gain a comprehensive understanding of executive pay, including key trends, gender disparities, and regional differences. https://lnkd.in/e2TCuQUT

👩💼 The Magic Circle's gender pay gap results are in for 2023, and (spoiler alert), the gaps have got worse in some metrics 📉 (1 min read) Ahead of my synopsis of the results, I will note that these results are fairly synonymous of the wider legal market as a whole, and the Magic Circle are some of the better performers here, but the concerning point with this is that, even the better performers are still a long way off parity. I'll briefly list out the 'usual' caveats and 'reasons' given for these results at the bottom, but why not dive right in to the results first... Freshfields: - the mean gender pay gap since last year, has increased from 53.2% to 53.5%. - the median gender pay gap was even more stark, jumping to 46.1% , from 14.8% the year before. - at the trainee and associate level, there was a 4% gap in mean hourly rate of pay, which swelled to 12.6% when comparing bonus figures. Clifford Chance: - the gap widened when comparing the mean hourly rates, with women now, on average, earning 17.2% less than men, up from 16.7 % last year. - the pay gap at the partner level has also increased by 1.4%.  - things were slightly more promising on the associate front, with female associates getting paid on average 2% less then men, down from 4% last year. Linklaters: - despite the firm having a female senior partner and women making up 50% of its ‘director group’, the gender pay gap sits around the 60% mark, with little change from the previous year. - it had, however, managed to decrease the gap in mean pay between equity partners, which now stands at 17.8%. A&O: - while the mean gender earnings gap has decreased since last year, it still stands at over 50%. - the pay gap at partner level was comparable to its counterparts at 17.7%. Slaughter & May: - the firm omitted gender pay gap data for partners, specifying that “as a full lockstep firm, all partners promoted at the same time are remunerated equally”. - at the associate level, the firm revealed a pay gap of 1.3%, unchanged from last year, and “no bonus pay gap”. Caveats: - Some of the firms attributed the gaps to higher proportions of women in lower paying business support roles, as well as more women being compared to their firms’ mostly male highest earners as more women gain entry to the partnership. - For an extremely long time, the biggest earners at 'all' law firms have been men, and owing to the very long career and lock-step renumeration model firms have, men have been paid more for longer and it takes time for that to materially change. My question is: How long until parity will be achieved, and what can be done to accelerate this, if anything, given the lockstep model? https://lnkd.in/e3pZbm79

👨⚖️ 👩⚖️ Freshfields & Clifford Chance follow Links and A&O in releasing their gender pay gap results (with Slaughters still to come). An important point of context before we get to the results, is that the pay gap shows the numerical difference in the average pay between two groups in a workforce (e.g. men and women - and in this case differs from Equal Pay where legislation is in place to ensure there is parity), regardless of job role or seniority - and these firms have included Partners in these metrics. So something to absolutely bear in mind for these numbers where Partner salaries are included, is that these firms typically have c.75% male partnerships (a topic for another day...) which is inevitably going to 'skew' these numbers... 👩⚖️ 👨⚖️ The results (all in 'favour' of men): - Freshfields: 53.2% - Clifford Chance: 63.5% - Linklaters: 60.1% - A&O: 55.7% Now, if you were to remove Partners, then these numbers all come down significantly. And impressively for Freshfields, the median pay gap (excluding Partners) for its employees has decreased to 0%! In my opinion, the most important part of what these firms have done in actually taking the time to produce these reports (as well as having completed them in the first place), is to: (i) release them publicly; and (ii) provide commentary on their results and what they're doing to address these imbalances. Clearly there is work to do, but at least these firms are addressing these publicly which provides accountability in the court of public opinion if they fail to achieve their own measures to align these imbalances. #genderpaygap #magiccircle

The recently released “2023 Law Department Compensation Survey,” conducted by the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) in collaboration with Empsight International, has revealed significant findings that suggest a positive shift in the gender pay gap among general counsel. This comprehensive survey, based on responses from 445 general counsel in the United States, offers valuable insights into compensation trends within the legal profession. The comment of Veta T. Richardson, NACD.DC, President & CEO of the Association of Corporate Counsel. Read the full article >> https://lnkd.in/e5gMgWhj #legalcommunityMENA #survey #compensation

Data from the ACC (Association of Corporate Counsel) Compensation Survey have suggested that the gender pay gap has shifted in favor of female general counsel. For the first time in history, racial and ethnic minority women reported a higher median total cash salary than their female counterparts, and non-minority women working in multi-lawyer departments reported the highest median salary of all groups, potential trends that ACC will continue to monitor. The comment of Veta T. Richardson, NACD.DC, president and CEO of the Association of Corporate Counsel. Read the full article >> https://lnkd.in/edZbEfqc #iberianlawyer #survey #paygap

Day 2 of back to school week and our new edition of Gender Pay Transparency: A Global Guide to Reporting Obligations is available. In the next 3 years we will see some significant progress on gender pay transparency in Europe as states implement the gender pay directive. Mandatory reporting was introduced in Ireland last year for all employers with 250+ employees. This will widen to employers with 150+ employees next year and to employers with 50+ employees in 2025. #dlapiper #employmentlaw #genderpaygap

Brazil's new law, introduced in July 2023, requires companies to regularly share data on pay differences between men and women, especially in management roles. This move aims to close the gender pay gap and address discrimination. However, additional guidelines released in November 2023 bring up some unanswered questions for businesses trying to follow the new rules. Our article outlines what these regulations mean, the process for reporting salary information, and the challenges employers might face: https://lnkd.in/emgyUEgz Written by José Carlos Wahle of Veirano Advogados #PayEquality #GenderPayGap #HRCompliance #BrazilLaw #EmploymentEquity

For my Sunday browsing, I took a look at the gender pay gap results from WGEA. Accounting firms and law firms sit under the "Professional, scientific and Technical Services" industry for those that are interested. https://lnkd.in/gP24SX3H There has been a lot of debate around the usefulness of these results. 🤔 For accounting and law firms, some have come up looking pretty good, others not so much. What would be interesting to see is the data at the partner/owner level as well. Whilst I know firsthand that some firms pay a set "salary" per partner - which makes this look equal - but there is then an "equity" share allocation. This is often quite disparate between male and female partners/owners. If you are an accounting firm or law firm that has female partners with the same equity as male partners (on average), you should be promoting this! In industries with around 50/50 male and female professional staff, firms have made headway towards a larger number of female partners in recent years. There is still a lot to do in this space for some firms though. I do think it is great firms are working to close the gap on the number of female partners but what about "remuneration" overall at the leadership level? #accounting #law #lawfirms #accountingfirms #equity

Thanks Hayley interesting read,