Law Department Management Blog
The compensation data currently in the General Counsel Metrics study includes almost 1,000 in-house lawyers, of which 404 reported the value of the equity award they received for 2011 (either zero or an amount; the others did not complete that question). Of that group that reported on equity, 225 got no award (55%) and 179 got an award (45%) of options, restricted stock or some other equity. The high proportion was a surprise to me, since I thought equity awards were much less common.
The average amount of the equity awards was $188,000, while the median was $100,000. They ranged from very small amounts to well over a million dollars. The ratio between cash compensation, base salary and cash bonus, and the value of equity awards ranged widely: from less than one percent to 300-400%.