The Best Way To Woo A New General Counsel Is With Gigantic Piles Of Money

Top in-house lawyers are expecting huge signing bonuses these days.

Swimming in moneyEd. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day.

To attract them, you have to address the fact that they’re usually walking away from a big pile of money. A big pile, like ‘Scrooge McDuck-style’ money. And a way to do that is with the signing bonus. We’re seeing more of it.

Jason Winmill, managing partner at the legal department consultancy Argopoint, in comments given to Corporate Counsel on the new heights that signing bonuses have reached for general counsel. But these extravagant compensation packages don’t always work out in the companies’ favor. “If you have to throw millions of dollars at somebody before they start work, and then they start work and it doesn’t work out, you are up the creek because you’ve paid them a lot of money,” he said. “Sunk costs are exactly that—sunk.”


Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on X/Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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