Corporate Counsel Weigh in on Job Satisfaction, Salaries, Benefits in Law Week’s Latest Survey

Earlier this year, Law Week Colorado partnered with Gibson Arnold & Associates and the Colorado Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel to collect and analyze information from more than 100 local in-house attorneys, including job satisfaction, bonuses, salary trends and representative industries. The survey ran from January to March 2025. 

A Note on Demographics

Out of 101 attorneys who took our survey, 49% identified as female and 46% as male while 5% declined to identify. Mirroring statewide and national trends, a majority of respondents, 79%, identified as white. Around 6% declined to identify their ethnicity, 4% identified as Hispanic or Latino and 4% reported they were two or more races. Roughly 3% of respondents said they were Asian or Asian American while 1% of attorneys who took the survey said they were Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander or other. Around 67% of the attorneys surveyed said they were between the ages of 35 and 54, while 29% were 55 or older and just 5% were 34 years old or younger. 


In terms of titles, a third of respondents said their title is Chief Legal Officer or General Counsel. Around 20% said their title is Corporate Attorney or Staff Attorney, 15% said their title is Associate General Counsel, 9% are Assistant General Counsel and 5% are Deputy General Counsel. 16% wrote in answers like “Senior Attorney,” “Senior Counsel,” “Senior Corporate Counsel” and “Corporate Counsel.” 

Around 41% of survey takers said they’ve only been with their companies for one to five years. Roughly 24% have been with their companies for six to 10 years, 12% reported 11 to 15 years, 12% said less than one year, 6% reported more than 20 years and 5% reported 16 to 20 years. 

A good portion of in-house counsel who took the survey are early in their careers. On average, respondents said they’d been in practice for around 13 years, with a majority (54%) saying they’d been in practice for 10 years or fewer. Around a quarter of respondents said they’d been practicing for more than 20 years. 

A majority of respondents, roughly 60%, said they worked for a Colorado-based company. Generally, the footprints of companies that in-house attorneys practiced at were national or international, at 33% and 43% of respondents, respectively. Around 24% said their companies had regional offices. 

Of the attorneys who responded to the survey, 23%, said they work at large organizations with more than 20,000 employees. Roughly 19% said their organizations have 1,000 to 5,000 employees while 34% collectively said they have fewer than that and 23% had between 5,001 and 20,000. 

In-house attorneys who took the survey tended to work at organizations with smaller groups of attorneys, with 56% saying there are 10-20 attorneys on staff. Around 39% reported their organizations had between 20 and 250 attorneys, with fewer saying their organization had quite so many. Only 4% said they had more than 250. Given the industry array reported in the 2025 survey, more highly regulated fields could be likely to outsource specific legal needs to law firms in addition to having in-house legal teams. 

Job Satisfaction, Representative Industries and Responsibilities

According to our survey, a majority of in-house attorneys get a bit of an all or nothing approach for in-person work post pandemic. Around 32% say they work remotely five days a week and 36% reported they’re either entirely in-person or only work from home one day a week or sporadically. 

Around 30% of in-house counsel said they have changed their jobs in the past two years while 70% said they haven’t. Those who said they were planning to change jobs in the next year said higher salaries, remote work opportunities, better titles, improved work/life balances and increased flexibility were drivers for their search. 

Even though a majority of corporate counsel said they were newer at their companies, a majority of respondents, 67%, said they’ve been through a downsizing or company acquisition in their career. A majority of attorneys who took our survey, roughly 58%, also said they supervise smaller legal teams of between one and 10, while around 33% said they don’t have any supervisory responsibilities. Of those with supervisory responsibilities, more than 28% said they supervise areas other than legal, including HR, immigration, insurance, corporate relations, risk, compliance and security. 

While responsibilities have seemingly ballooned for in-house counsel, a slight majority of respondents said they didn’t consider themselves subject matter experts. Around 45% said they did have subject matter expertise or have advanced legal degrees like an LLM. 

In terms of in-house representation at organizations, a majority of respondents were at private organizations at 60%, while around 28% were public, 13% were nonprofit and around 4% were at startups. Organizations in the technology industry saw the majority share of in-house counsel at around 24%, followed by health care at 15% and closely followed manufacturing and energy, which tied at 14%. 

As far as factors respondents reported that contribute to their job satisfaction, survey respondents said compensation, work-life balance, company culture and flexibility were among their top concerns. A majority said compensation was top-of-mind at 87%, trailed slightly by company culture at 80%. 

Respondents largely said they planned to stay in their current roles for between two and five years, at 38%. Just over a quarter of survey takers said they’d stay less than that, while 15% said between five and 10 and 21% were planning to stay for the rest of their careers.

If survey respondents said they recently changed jobs in the past two years, they said it took them a cumulative average of nine months to complete their job search. Some said it took as little time as a week while others said it took four years. 

When asked what factors contributed to their decisions to leave other positions in the past two years, respondents echoed the same factors they reported were related to their overall job satisfaction — compensation, company culture and work-life balance. 

Salaries, Bonuses and Benefits

Salaries respondents reported for corporate counsel attorneys vary depending on obvious factors like title and years of experience. Respondents with titles similar to “associate general counsel” said their salaries were between $150,000 and $285,000 while those who were “corporate attorney/staff attorney” said they made between $250,000 and $300,000. Those with the higher salary ranges said their titles were “deputy general counsel,” making $300,000 to $400,000, and “chief legal officer/general counsel,” at $400,000 to $500,000. 

Some respondents who said they were CLOs or GCs also reported getting a 100% cash bonus. But more generally, around 25% said they don’t get bonuses and roughly the same amount said they get a multiple of bonuses. 

Those with titles (associate general counsel, head of legal, deputy general counsel and assistant general counsel) and salaries in the mid-range (between $200,000 and $250,000 and between $250,000 and $300,000) reported that a higher percentage of their compensation is bonuses at between 35 and 42%. 

But bonuses aren’t the only benefit Law Week tracked in the survey. Around 96% of respondents reported they get a 401K, followed by 90% who said their employer covers attorney registration fees. Other popular benefits included life insurance (88%), employee participation health insurance (86%), 3% 401K match (87%), industry conferences or continuing legal education (86%) and disability insurance (79%). 

While 401K and 401K matches were popularly reported by in-house attorneys who took our survey, pensions were among the lowest reported benefits at 8%. This reflects a larger trend of employers moving away from the coveted pension offering and toward a less expensive and more predictable 401K retirement model. But the number of pensions reported this year is higher than the last time Law Week ran this survey in 2022, which was then reported at 2.38%. 401K matches decreased since our last report in 2022, which was then reported at 93.65%. 

Also on the lower end of the reported benefits were EcoPasses (9%), fully employer covered health insurance (12%) or executive level medical programs (5%), child care assistance or subsidies (7%) and company cars (1%). Company profit sharing was also among the lowest reported benefits at 14%. Around 27% of respondents said their companies offer DEI support and initiatives and 52% said they’re given flexible work hours. 

Long-term incentive programs including equity, RSUs and stock options have dipped since our last report in 2022 as well, from 53.17% to now 43%. Of those who reported they have equity options or RSUs, some said it was based on factors like performance or a vesting period or that it had an annual or lifetime cap at a certain dollar amount or value level. 

This trend departs slightly from what our survey partners are seeing in the current marketplace. A representative at Gibson Arnold said younger attorneys are increasingly being offered long-term incentive programs and equity up front. Reflecting a strong competitive market between Colorado and coastal states for top talent, things like equity and other high-quality benefits can be included in a compelling offer. Less tangible things like flexible work hours, the ability to work remotely and unlimited PTO could also help.

Roughly 31% of respondents to our survey also noted they typically work between 40 and 45 hours per week on average, while around 25% said they work between 46 and 50 and roughly 27% said they work more than that. 17% said they work fewer than 40 hours a week. 

Unlimited PTO seems to be on the rise in comparison to our 2022 survey results. This year, around 44% said they got unlimited PTO, up from 39% a few years ago. Roughly 41% said they got between three and six weeks of PTO.

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