In-house counsel salary by industry, 2026

OEWS wages exclude the self-employed and exclude equity. A lawyer employed by a holding company is classified in Management of Companies and Enterprises, not in the operating industry. In May 2023 that headquarters cell held 22,110 lawyers at an annual mean of $237,370 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, lawyers occupation profile).

Insurance carriers (NAICS 524100) and pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing (NAICS 325400) are the two May 2025 cells, so they can be compared with each other. The carrier row is insurer payroll. It is not agencies and brokerages (NAICS 524200), and it is not a holding company that owns an insurer. The manufacturing cell employs 400 lawyers. A relocation of one legal department can move a cell that small. Half of those lawyers earned at least the annual median of $296,550, which is $18,730 above the annual mean of $277,820, so an offer anchored on the mean sits below the midpoint.

The prior vintage of that manufacturing cell, May 2023, showed employment of 570 and an annual mean of $244,550, with the hourly median top-coded (Bureau of Labor Statistics, NAICS 325400 industry profile). The published mean is higher and the published headcount is lower. The people in the two cells are not a matched cohort. $277,820 minus $244,550 is $33,270 only as the difference between two published means.

The insurance spread is wide for a reason that matters to both readers. A counsel at the 10th percentile and a counsel at the 90th percentile are $201,290 apart ($302,820 minus $101,530) inside the same NAICS and the same month. Seniority, city, and whether the seat carries the officer title all sit inside that range. The industry mean does not pick them apart. The in-house counsel salary guide takes the next cut, by seniority and metro. This page takes the industry cut.

Credit intermediation and related activities (NAICS 5221 and 5223 only, industry code 5220A1) employed 5,540 lawyers in May 2023. The annual mean was $230,180. The hourly median was $105.83 and the hourly mean was $110.67, so the mean sits above the middle. The employment relative standard error was 3.6 percent, the tightest of these May 2023 cells. The cell is depository credit and related activities. It excludes nondepository credit and it excludes securities.

That exclusion is the banking mistake. Securities and related financial investment (NAICS 523000) employed 6,770 lawyers in May 2023 at an annual mean of $264,110. The hourly median was top-coded. A board that calls both populations “banking” will import a broker-dealer mean into a depository payroll, a difference of $33,930 between the two published annual means ($264,110 minus $230,180), same occupation, same month.

Software publishers (NAICS 513200) employed 3,620 lawyers in May 2023 at an annual mean of $217,260. The hourly median was $104.86 and the hourly mean was $104.45, so a long right tail is not pulling the cell. The employment relative standard error was 12.7 percent. The cell is publishers, not cloud hosting and not the whole technology sector.

Energy is two payrolls. Oil and gas extraction (NAICS 211100) employed 370 lawyers in May 2023 at an annual mean of $225,780. The hourly median and the hourly mean were both $108.55. Employment relative standard error was 10.0 percent. The count is small because it is the operator’s own payroll, not oilfield services and not the parent holding company. Electric power generation, transmission and distribution (NAICS 221100) employed 980 lawyers at an annual mean of $213,590. The hourly median was $104.23 and the hourly mean was $102.69. A single “energy average” would hide a $12,190 gap between those two May 2023 means ($225,780 minus $213,590).

Real estate (NAICS 531000) employed 3,650 lawyers in May 2023 at an annual mean of $216,260. The hourly median was $89.13 and the hourly mean was $103.97, so the mean sits above a typical seat. The employment relative standard error was 8.9 percent.

The 2025 Law Department Compensation Survey, data effective 1 March 2025, reports national medians by title. A general counsel who is the company’s only lawyer had a median base of $234,000, median total cash of $255,000, and median total target direct compensation of $280,000, with a short-term incentive target of 20 percent. A general counsel or chief legal officer had a median base of $330,000, median total cash of $410,000, and median total target direct compensation of $503,000, with a short-term incentive target of 35 percent. Long-term incentives were available to 63 percent of that title, at a median target of 40 percent.

Down the stack, still national and still 1 March 2025: deputy general counsel median base $280,000 and median total cash $368,000, target bonus 30 percent. Associate general counsel median base $245,000 and median total cash $294,000. Managing attorney median base $239,000. Expert attorney median base $227,000. Senior attorney median base $201,000 and median total cash $228,000. Attorney median base $148,000 and median total cash $160,000. Company size moves these faster than the title label. At companies with revenue of $5 billion or more, the general counsel and chief legal officer median base was 44 percent higher than at companies under $1 billion, and total target direct compensation was 173 percent higher, with the large-company median above $1 million. Associate general counsel base was 36 percent higher and total target direct compensation 75 percent higher.

Asked about the coming year, the share responding very likely or likely to change jobs was 5 percent in insurance (2 percent very likely and 3 percent likely), 14 percent in oil and gas (7 and 7), 15 percent in real estate (4 and 11), 18 percent in financial services (7 and 11), 21 percent in technology (10 and 11), and 22 percent in pharmaceutical and medical devices (10 and 12). Across all respondents, 28 percent had changed jobs in the prior two years, up from 25 percent in the 2024 survey. The average merit increase, for people who were not promoted, was 3.5 percent. Reported hours per week were 47.8 in oil and gas, 47.8 in pharmaceutical and medical devices, 47.2 in technology, 46.6 in insurance, 46.6 in real estate, and 45.7 in financial services.

The participant mix is a warning about sample size, not a wage. Technology was 16 percent of respondents, financial services 10 percent, insurance 6 percent, pharmaceutical and medical devices 4 percent, oil and gas 3 percent, and real estate 3 percent. Thirty-five percent of respondents worked at companies with $5 billion or more in revenue. An industry with 3 percent of 1,632 people is about 49 respondents before any title split. That is why this page does not invent an insurance or pharma dollar from the ACC industry chart.

May 2025 OEWS industry profiles for credit intermediation, software publishers, oil and gas extraction, electric power, and real estate were not published as HTML. Those rows stay on the May 2023 profiles. They are not estimates. Accepted-offer medians are Sartori & Partners data for January 2024 to September 2026, and they are not a substitute for the BLS cell.