{
 "name": "Sartori & Partners, General Counsel Pay at the Largest US-Listed Companies, 2026 proxy season",
 "release": "2026",
 "generated": "2026-09-29",
 "license": "CC BY 4.0",
 "rules": {
  "unit": "one row per company; the top legal officer (GC / CLO) as a named executive officer in the latest fiscal-year row of the Summary Compensation Table",
  "stats_sample": "full-year sitting GC (tenure rule below); every other GC-NEO row stays in the table, flagged in `status`, and is out of every median, quartile and breakdown",
  "tenure_rule": "the person held the top legal role for at least 9 months of the fiscal year and still held it at fiscal year-end or left fewer than 30 days before it. Dates from the filing (tenure.csv, one dated line per role change). status: sitting_full_year | partial_year (joined or promoted late) | former (left earlier, incl. advisor roles after a handover) | unconfirmed (the filing does not date the change)",
  "two_holders": "the year-end holder (SPEC-extract rule 5); other holders are not in the data",
  "quartiles": "inclusive linear interpolation; medians and quartiles suppressed when a cut has fewer than 10 full-year rows",
  "float_bands": {
   "$100bn+": ">= $100bn",
   "$50-100bn": ">= $50bn",
   "$25-50bn": ">= $25bn",
   "Under $25bn": "< $25bn"
  },
  "float_definition": "public float on the cover of the latest Form 10-K (XBRL dei:EntityPublicFloat); the 500 are the 500 largest US-listed operating companies by that figure",
  "pay_mix": "per company: salary; cash incentive = bonus + non-equity incentive; equity = stock + option awards (grant-date fair value); other = pension/NQDC change + all other; each as a share of SEC Total. Medians of the four shares do not add to 100%",
  "gc_to_ceo": "GC total / CEO total, full-year rows only, CEO SCT total >= $1,000,000 (below that, or missing, the CEO has no or near-zero SCT pay and the ratio is meaningless; the row keeps its ratio in the table but is out of the statistic)",
  "outliers": "GC total > P75 + 3 x IQR of the stats sample (= $19,272,042); kept in medians and quartiles, excluded from the trimmed mean only",
  "title_group": "CLO if the printed title contains 'Chief Legal' (also when it says General Counsel); GC if it says General Counsel only"
 },
 "coverage": {
  "universe": 500,
  "proxies_found": 494,
  "sct_located": 490,
  "no_proxy_in_window": 6,
  "proxy_without_readable_sct": 4,
  "flagged_legal_title": 266,
  "flagged_strong": 258,
  "flagged_weak": 8,
  "sct_read_no_legal_title": 224,
  "flagged_not_top_legal_officer_or_not_in_latest_year": 4,
  "gc_neo": 262,
  "partial_or_former": 26,
  "status": {
   "sitting_full_year": 236,
   "partial_year": 14,
   "former": 10,
   "unconfirmed": 2
  },
  "part_year_pay_but_rule_met": 8,
  "stats_sample": 236,
  "low_confidence": 1,
  "two_holders": 7,
  "gc_not_neo_or_not_found_of_sct_read": 228,
  "share_gc_neo_of_sct_read": 0.535,
  "filing_dates": [
   "2025-10-02",
   "2026-09-25"
  ],
  "fiscal_years": {
   "2025": 231,
   "2026": 31
  },
  "search_window": [
   "2025-10-01",
   "2026-09-29"
  ],
  "universe_float_usd": [
   14300000000,
   4000000000000
  ],
  "float_date_modal": {
   "date": "2025-06-30",
   "n": 348
  }
 },
 "n": 236,
 "verification": {
  "source": "verify/report.md (blind re-extraction from the raw filing HTML)",
  "companies": 68,
  "random_sample": 30,
  "seed": 20260929,
  "cells": 693,
  "matched_after_adjudication": 691,
  "corrections": 2,
  "header_check_rows": 210,
  "header_check_of": 261,
  "fp_draw": 10,
  "fp_hits": 0
 },
 "total": {
  "n": 236,
  "median": 4761466,
  "p25": 3192272,
  "p75": 7212215
 },
 "salary": {
  "n": 236,
  "median": 660473,
  "p25": 569726,
  "p75": 799999
 },
 "total_mean_all": 6575668,
 "total_mean_ex_outliers": 5478512,
 "pay_mix": {
  "salary": {
   "n": 236,
   "median": 0.147,
   "p25": 0.105,
   "p75": 0.194
  },
  "cash_incentive": {
   "n": 236,
   "median": 0.193,
   "p25": 0.118,
   "p75": 0.265
  },
  "equity": {
   "n": 236,
   "median": 0.605,
   "p25": 0.487,
   "p75": 0.74
  },
  "other": {
   "n": 236,
   "median": 0.016,
   "p25": 0.004,
   "p75": 0.042
  }
 },
 "gc_to_ceo_ratio": {
  "n": 229,
  "median": 0.255,
  "p25": 0.198,
  "p75": 0.331,
  "excluded_ceo_missing": 1,
  "excluded_ceo_below_min": 6,
  "gc_above_ceo": 9
 },
 "thresholds": {
  "ge_5m": 106,
  "ge_10m": 35,
  "ge_5m_share": 0.449,
  "ge_10m_share": 0.148
 },
 "outliers": {
  "fence_usd": 19272041,
  "n": 10,
  "rows": [
   {
    "company": "Welltower Inc.",
    "ticker": "WELL",
    "total": 93458297,
    "prior_year_total": 4442249,
    "stock_awards": 90906797,
    "ceo_total": 821090355,
    "note": "Stock awards include a 10-year equity award (ECAP) reported up front; total is a one-off outlier vs prior year and CEO total is also outsized. Clean row."
   },
   {
    "company": "Alphabet Inc.",
    "ticker": "GOOGL",
    "total": 29139128,
    "prior_year_total": 30162760,
    "stock_awards": 28123532,
    "ceo_total": 10906079,
    "note": "SCT has no Option/pension columns; non-equity incentive dash = 0 (SVP bonus program ended, moved into PSUs). CEO got no stock award in 2025 (real), so GC total exceeds CEO total."
   },
   {
    "company": "Broadcom Inc.",
    "ticker": "AVGO",
    "total": 28619011,
    "prior_year_total": 28981943,
    "stock_awards": 27213948,
    "ceo_total": 205278006,
    "note": "Fiscal year ended Nov 2025. Stock award includes 192,348 incremental fair value from an award modification."
   },
   {
    "company": "Palantir Technologies Inc.",
    "ticker": "PLTR",
    "total": 27964601,
    "prior_year_total": 11833282,
    "stock_awards": 21170428,
    "ceo_total": 8623000,
    "note": "Combined role: top legal officer is also Chief Revenue Officer. GC total exceeds CEO total because the CEO got no stock or option awards in 2025 (real). Salary includes 5,000 parental benefit. Missing columns = 0."
   },
   {
    "company": "Apple Inc.",
    "ticker": "AAPL",
    "total": 27032248,
    "prior_year_total": 27179257,
    "stock_awards": 22009766,
    "ceo_total": 74294811,
    "note": "Clean row; no bonus, option or pension columns in this SCT (treated as 0)."
   },
   {
    "company": "Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.",
    "ticker": "WBD",
    "total": 23259047,
    "prior_year_total": null,
    "stock_awards": 17733175,
    "ceo_total": 165009366,
    "note": "Joined Feb 24 2025 (partial year); stock includes sign-on grants. Extract row drops blank cells: option 1,308,451 settled from the grant table in raw HTML. First NEO year."
   },
   {
    "company": "Goldman Sachs Group Inc",
    "ticker": "GS",
    "total": 22288701,
    "prior_year_total": 17635089,
    "stock_awards": 12004280,
    "ceo_total": 118891684,
    "note": "Layout: SCT puts each 2025 row above the name line. Stock awards = Year-End Awards column (retention RSUs dash). Retires June 30 2026 (still in role at year end)."
   },
   {
    "company": "Gen Digital Inc.",
    "ticker": "GEN",
    "total": 21940522,
    "prior_year_total": 6626631,
    "stock_awards": 20485803,
    "ceo_total": 83582308,
    "note": "Fiscal 2026. Stock awards = Total Stock Awards column (annual 7,959,852 plus one-off VCP II award 12,525,951). Total is over 3x prior year because of the VCP II award (real, not an error). CEO figure also includes VCP II."
   },
   {
    "company": "Coinbase Global, Inc.",
    "ticker": "COIN",
    "total": 20740442,
    "prior_year_total": 8233362,
    "stock_awards": 19999942,
    "ceo_total": 9713000,
    "note": "GC total exceeds the CEO total because the CEO gets no equity awards (pay is salary plus security and travel); the GC's 2025 stock grant is 20.0M. Not an error. No incentive or pension columns in this SCT."
   },
   {
    "company": "Morgan Stanley",
    "ticker": "MS",
    "total": 19272086,
    "prior_year_total": null,
    "stock_awards": 10284614,
    "ceo_total": 37187657,
    "note": "Not an NEO in 2024, so no prior-year total. No option or non-equity incentive columns in this SCT; bonus column holds the annual cash bonus."
   }
  ]
 },
 "by_band": [
  {
   "band": "$100bn+",
   "universe_n": 104,
   "gc_neo_n": 49,
   "gc_neo_share_of_universe": 0.471,
   "partial_or_former_excluded": 5,
   "total": {
    "n": 44,
    "median": 10262560,
    "p25": 5896908,
    "p75": 15649878
   },
   "salary": {
    "n": 44,
    "median": 870162,
    "p25": 625000,
    "p75": 1018439
   },
   "gc_to_ceo_ratio": {
    "n": 43,
    "median": 0.299,
    "p25": 0.228,
    "p75": 0.368
   },
   "median_public_float_usd": 184900000000,
   "equity_share": {
    "n": 44,
    "median": 0.639,
    "p25": 0.565,
    "p75": 0.789
   },
   "mix": {
    "salary": {
     "n": 44,
     "median": 0.108,
     "p25": 0.062,
     "p75": 0.138
    },
    "cash_incentive": {
     "n": 44,
     "median": 0.19,
     "p25": 0.108,
     "p75": 0.259
    },
    "equity": {
     "n": 44,
     "median": 0.639,
     "p25": 0.565,
     "p75": 0.789
    },
    "other": {
     "n": 44,
     "median": 0.01,
     "p25": 0.001,
     "p75": 0.036
    }
   }
  },
  {
   "band": "$50-100bn",
   "universe_n": 99,
   "gc_neo_n": 49,
   "gc_neo_share_of_universe": 0.495,
   "partial_or_former_excluded": 6,
   "total": {
    "n": 43,
    "median": 4975111,
    "p25": 3763986,
    "p75": 6938741
   },
   "salary": {
    "n": 43,
    "median": 700000,
    "p25": 595577,
    "p75": 792230
   },
   "gc_to_ceo_ratio": {
    "n": 41,
    "median": 0.239,
    "p25": 0.198,
    "p75": 0.331
   },
   "median_public_float_usd": 64500000000,
   "equity_share": {
    "n": 43,
    "median": 0.603,
    "p25": 0.526,
    "p75": 0.79
   },
   "mix": {
    "salary": {
     "n": 43,
     "median": 0.137,
     "p25": 0.102,
     "p75": 0.169
    },
    "cash_incentive": {
     "n": 43,
     "median": 0.192,
     "p25": 0.105,
     "p75": 0.233
    },
    "equity": {
     "n": 43,
     "median": 0.603,
     "p25": 0.526,
     "p75": 0.79
    },
    "other": {
     "n": 43,
     "median": 0.029,
     "p25": 0.006,
     "p75": 0.055
    }
   }
  },
  {
   "band": "$25-50bn",
   "universe_n": 135,
   "gc_neo_n": 78,
   "gc_neo_share_of_universe": 0.578,
   "partial_or_former_excluded": 8,
   "total": {
    "n": 70,
    "median": 4179578,
    "p25": 3284233,
    "p75": 6250470
   },
   "salary": {
    "n": 70,
    "median": 664142,
    "p25": 574808,
    "p75": 723244
   },
   "gc_to_ceo_ratio": {
    "n": 68,
    "median": 0.243,
    "p25": 0.197,
    "p75": 0.334
   },
   "median_public_float_usd": 35850000000,
   "equity_share": {
    "n": 70,
    "median": 0.612,
    "p25": 0.468,
    "p75": 0.705
   },
   "mix": {
    "salary": {
     "n": 70,
     "median": 0.157,
     "p25": 0.119,
     "p75": 0.199
    },
    "cash_incentive": {
     "n": 70,
     "median": 0.204,
     "p25": 0.131,
     "p75": 0.269
    },
    "equity": {
     "n": 70,
     "median": 0.612,
     "p25": 0.468,
     "p75": 0.705
    },
    "other": {
     "n": 70,
     "median": 0.013,
     "p25": 0.005,
     "p75": 0.034
    }
   }
  },
  {
   "band": "Under $25bn",
   "universe_n": 162,
   "gc_neo_n": 86,
   "gc_neo_share_of_universe": 0.531,
   "partial_or_former_excluded": 7,
   "total": {
    "n": 79,
    "median": 3525674,
    "p25": 2611722,
    "p75": 5026461
   },
   "salary": {
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    "median": 595270,
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    "p75": 697308
   },
   "gc_to_ceo_ratio": {
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    "median": 0.257,
    "p25": 0.197,
    "p75": 0.313
   },
   "median_public_float_usd": 19100000000,
   "equity_share": {
    "n": 79,
    "median": 0.591,
    "p25": 0.449,
    "p75": 0.722
   },
   "mix": {
    "salary": {
     "n": 79,
     "median": 0.17,
     "p25": 0.13,
     "p75": 0.242
    },
    "cash_incentive": {
     "n": 79,
     "median": 0.191,
     "p25": 0.112,
     "p75": 0.267
    },
    "equity": {
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     "median": 0.591,
     "p25": 0.449,
     "p75": 0.722
    },
    "other": {
     "n": 79,
     "median": 0.02,
     "p25": 0.005,
     "p75": 0.038
    }
   }
  }
 ],
 "by_sector": [
  {
   "sector": "Industrials & business services",
   "universe_n": 145,
   "gc_neo_n": 69,
   "gc_neo_share_of_universe": 0.476,
   "partial_or_former_excluded": 10,
   "total": {
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    "median": 3742680,
    "p25": 2700983,
    "p75": 5618645
   },
   "salary": {
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    "median": 663624,
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    "p75": 750000
   },
   "gc_to_ceo_ratio": {
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    "p75": 0.294
   },
   "median_public_float_usd": 30418290020,
   "equity_share": {
    "n": 59,
    "median": 0.574,
    "p25": 0.462,
    "p75": 0.647
   }
  },
  {
   "sector": "Technology",
   "universe_n": 91,
   "gc_neo_n": 54,
   "gc_neo_share_of_universe": 0.593,
   "partial_or_former_excluded": 6,
   "total": {
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    "median": 5785702,
    "p25": 3965338,
    "p75": 10746356
   },
   "salary": {
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    "median": 570036,
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   },
   "gc_to_ceo_ratio": {
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    "median": 0.285,
    "p25": 0.203,
    "p75": 0.358
   },
   "median_public_float_usd": 36900000000,
   "equity_share": {
    "n": 48,
    "median": 0.801,
    "p25": 0.683,
    "p75": 0.88
   }
  },
  {
   "sector": "Healthcare & life sciences",
   "universe_n": 46,
   "gc_neo_n": 30,
   "gc_neo_share_of_universe": 0.652,
   "partial_or_former_excluded": 2,
   "total": {
    "n": 28,
    "median": 5337369,
    "p25": 3527650,
    "p75": 5981398
   },
   "salary": {
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    "median": 720616,
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   "gc_to_ceo_ratio": {
    "n": 27,
    "median": 0.268,
    "p25": 0.186,
    "p75": 0.295
   },
   "median_public_float_usd": 36402438298,
   "equity_share": {
    "n": 28,
    "median": 0.622,
    "p25": 0.561,
    "p75": 0.693
   }
  },
  {
   "sector": "Utilities",
   "universe_n": 38,
   "gc_neo_n": 26,
   "gc_neo_share_of_universe": 0.684,
   "partial_or_former_excluded": 4,
   "total": {
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   "salary": {
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    "median": 673995,
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   "gc_to_ceo_ratio": {
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   "median_public_float_usd": 36723000000,
   "equity_share": {
    "n": 22,
    "median": 0.474,
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    "p75": 0.563
   }
  },
  {
   "sector": "Financials",
   "universe_n": 74,
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   "gc_neo_share_of_universe": 0.338,
   "partial_or_former_excluded": 2,
   "total": {
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   "salary": {
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   "median_public_float_usd": 58394760022,
   "equity_share": {
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  },
  {
   "sector": "Consumer & retail",
   "universe_n": 55,
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   "total": {
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   "equity_share": {
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  },
  {
   "sector": "Real estate",
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   "equity_share": {
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  },
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   "sector": "Energy & resources",
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   "equity_share": {
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  },
  {
   "sector": "Media & telecom",
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   "gc_neo_share_of_universe": 1.0,
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   "total": {
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    "median": null,
    "p25": null,
    "p75": null,
    "note": "n<10, not shown"
   },
   "salary": {
    "n": 8,
    "median": null,
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    "p75": null,
    "note": "n<10, not shown"
   },
   "gc_to_ceo_ratio": {
    "n": 7,
    "median": null,
    "p25": null,
    "p75": null,
    "note": "n<10, not shown"
   },
   "median_public_float_usd": 121572500000,
   "equity_share": null
  },
  {
   "sector": "Unclassified",
   "universe_n": 1,
   "gc_neo_n": 0,
   "gc_neo_share_of_universe": 0.0,
   "partial_or_former_excluded": 0,
   "total": {
    "n": 0,
    "median": null,
    "p25": null,
    "p75": null,
    "note": "n<10, not shown"
   },
   "salary": {
    "n": 0,
    "median": null,
    "p25": null,
    "p75": null,
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}
