How much should a law firm pay an in-house counsel?

Start with the label on the data.

Our BLS sources carry no in-house counsel series: the occupation is Lawyers, SOC 23-1011, and this hire sits inside it, so every figure on this page is a proxy you name rather than a number you lift.

The May 2025 release — the latest one as of this writing — puts the national median annual wage for lawyers at $159,670.

The industry cut closest to an in-house hire is corporate head offices: lawyers working in Management of Companies and Enterprises had a median annual wage of $223,560.

The law-firm cut, the Legal Services industry, had a median of $157,870.

Same release, same occupation, different industries — name the market you are actually hiring in, and anchor your band to that series instead of blending them.

Location moves the number.

Among states, New York had the highest lawyer median wage in May 2025 at $207,860, followed by the District of Columbia at $195,190 and California at $195,080, while Mississippi was lowest at $91,690.

Those are all-industry lawyer medians, not an industry cut, so read them as the geographic spread of the occupation, then adjust toward the corporate-head-office cut where your role resembles it.

Two limits before you budget.

OEWS counts wage-earning lawyers and excludes the self-employed, so it measures neither a solo practitioner's income nor an equity partner's draw.

And it is an annual survey, not a listings feed: for what competing employers advertise right now, browse the in-house counsel jobs on this board, and for the national tables and the sector cuts behind this page, our in-house counsel salary data page carries them.

Experience is the variable you will most want a table for, and the one our research cannot give you: our research found no sourced pay ladder for in-house counsel by years of experience, and the OEWS percentile columns are not experience steps — each is a slice of one occupation at one point in time.

Price the level by scope instead, which is the scope document described in our guide to how to hire an in-house counsel: which decision categories the person owns outright, which they escalate, and who they report to.

Practice area works the same way.

Our research found no verified pay premium for in-house work by specialty, so resist adding one to the band on instinct.

What moves the number is what the role has to cover — regulatory and compliance exposure, contract volume, the firm's insurance and employment matters — and you will see that in the scope document before you see it in any survey.

Employer type has the cleanest data.

In the same May 2025 release, lawyers in the federal executive branch had a median annual wage of $178,380, lawyers in state government (excluding schools and hospitals) $115,330, and lawyers in local government (excluding schools and hospitals) $131,350 — against the corporate-head-office median of $223,560 and the law-firm median of $157,870 above.

Same survey, same occupation, different industry slices — useful comparators depending on which market your candidate comes from.

Firm size has a real size ladder in the sources — but that ladder measures law-firm associate pay, not in-house bands, so it belongs with the benchmarking question in the next section.

Whatever structure you choose sits on a base salary, and federal law leaves that base remarkably free.

Under 29 CFR 541.304, a lawyer who holds a valid license to practice law and is actually engaged in practice is an exempt professional, and the federal salary-level and salary-basis requirements do not apply — DOL's guidance for bona fide practitioners of law says the same.

Exemption turns on duties and salary facts, not the job title.

California is the exception: there, a licensed attorney practicing law is exempt only if the salary is also at least two times the state minimum wage for full-time work — $70,304 a year, $1,352 a week, at the 2026 minimum wage of $16.90 — so a low-base, big-bonus structure can fall below the state's line.

The full tests sit in our guide to attorney overtime rules.

Bonuses are yours to design, with one handoff to the ethics rules.

If your in-house counsel will help run compensation for the firm's nonlawyer staff, the rule to hand them is ABA Model Rule 5.4(a), which bars a lawyer or law firm from sharing legal fees with a nonlawyer, subject to listed exceptions.

One listed exception is Model Rule 5.4(a)(3), which allows a compensation or retirement plan based in whole or in part on profit-sharing.

New York's Comment [1B] to Rule 5.4, restated in NYSBA Ethics Opinion 887, ties permissible profit-sharing to the total profitability of the firm or a department — not the fee from a single case.

Your state's adopted version controls, and your state bar's ethics counsel should confirm a plan design before you announce it.

"Equity" depends on who the employer is and how it is organized, and our research does not cover ownership terms.

Decide which instrument you are actually offering before the conversation starts, put it in writing, and let the employer's governing agreement and counsel set the terms.

If you are hiring a junior lawyer, benchmark against entry-level law-firm pay as well.

NALP's 2025 Associate Salary Survey put the median first-year associate base salary at $200,000 as of January 1, 2025, and $215,000 at firms of more than 700 lawyers; among firms of 250 or fewer lawyers, a first-year salary of $150,000 or less was the most common response, reported by 44% of offices.

The survey is large-firm heavy and predates any 2026 pay changes, so read it as a dated firm-market snapshot rather than the whole market.

NALP's Class of 2025 salary curve — 22,715 reported full-time salaries across all employer types — found two peaks: $60,000 to $100,000 made up 50.0% of reported salaries, and $225,000 accounted for 21.5%.

Both are entry-level datasets: they describe first-year and new-graduate pay, not the offer an experienced lawyer leaving firm practice is weighing, and our research has no sourced pay figure for lateral or senior firm lawyers.

Keep the series straight as you compare: OEWS medians and NALP's survey are different datasets covering different populations, so name each one and never subtract across them.

The method for building the comparison is in our guide to benchmarking law firm pay.

One comparison OEWS can never settle: partner economics.

The survey excludes the self-employed, so a candidate weighing your offer against a partnership draw is comparing numbers your sources cannot see — ask what they are giving up rather than assuming it from a table.

Our research has pay tables; it has no ranked survey of what in-house counsel candidates value in a benefits package, so any "perks that matter most" list would be somebody's guess — ours included.

What the sources do support is a compliance point with a design payoff.

Your benefits list is also becoming posting content.

Washington requires employers with 15 or more employees to disclose in each posting the wage scale or salary range and a general description of benefits and other compensation, a rule in effect since January 1, 2023.

Illinois requires employers with 15 or more employees to include the pay scale and benefits in any specific job posting for work performed at least partly in Illinois or reporting to an Illinois supervisor, with a hyperlink to a public page allowed.

Minnesota requires employers with 30 or more employees in Minnesota to list the starting salary range and a general description of benefits, and its ranges may not be open-ended.

Write the actual package down before you post — coverage, retirement, CLE and bar-dues support, schedule — and you have it for the candidate and the compliance check at the same time.

One item you cannot offer, but should name: federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness depends on the employer, not the job.

U.S. government organizations at any level and 501(c)(3) nonprofits qualify; private law firms — for-profit employers — are not on the qualifying-employer list.

A candidate trading a government or nonprofit role for your firm stops earning qualifying employment while with you, so be explicit about the money rather than leaving them to price that trade-off alone.

The rest of the package is firm design, not compliance.

For a role you are pitching on scope and predictability rather than billables, the levers worth writing into the posting are the ones that make the job describable: the coverage, retirement, CLE support and schedule you can actually deliver.

For package ideas that fit a firm budget, see our guide to the benefits small firms offer.

The offer is where this page becomes a rulebook, because the salary-history statutes our research verified bar the anchor a pricing conversation drifts toward: the candidate's current salary.

Know where salary history is off limits.

California's Labor Code 432.3 bars every employer, any size, from seeking an applicant's salary history — compensation and benefits, orally or in writing, personally or through an agent — and from relying on it in deciding whether to hire or what to pay.

New York's Labor Law 194-a bars relying on an applicant's wage or salary history, requesting it as a condition of being interviewed, considered, hired or promoted, and seeking it from a current or former employer.

Illinois makes it unlawful to screen applicants by salary history, to request it as a condition of an interview or offer, or to seek it from a current or former employer.

Massachusetts bars seeking a prospective employee's wage or salary history from the candidate or a current or former employer.

Three more from our pay-transparency research: Connecticut bars asking about a prospective employee's wage and salary history unless the applicant volunteers it; Virginia bans seeking salary history; and Nevada bans seeking it — and requires the employer to give the wage or salary range to an applicant who has completed an interview.

That is the set our research verified; it is not a complete count, and many cities and other states have their own rules, so confirm the current rule for your state with its labor agency.

Build the number from your band instead.

Ask about salary expectations — California's statute expressly allows that question, and an applicant who volunteers salary history without prompting may be considered under it.

New York allows one narrow look backward: an employer may confirm salary history only after an offer with compensation is made, if the applicant responds by citing prior pay to support a higher number.

Massachusetts allows confirmation only after voluntary disclosure or after an offer with compensation has been made.

Have the number ready to show.

A published range sets the negotiation you want — and in the states below, the law requires one in the posting.

California requires employers with 15 or more employees to include the pay scale in the job posting — and an employer using a third party to post must give it the pay scale to include — and must provide the scale to an applicant on reasonable request, regardless of employer size.

New York requires compensation ranges in postings from four employees up; Colorado requires disclosure of compensation and benefits in all internal and public job postings; Massachusetts requires the range from 25 employees, effective October 29, 2025; Connecticut's posting requirement took effect October 1, 2026; New York City has required a good-faith pay range in advertisements for NYC-performed work since November 1, 2022; and Virginia requires the wage, salary or range in each posting.

Where a posting is not required, Nevada flips the timing: the range goes to an applicant who has completed an interview.

California defines the pay scale as a good-faith estimate of the salary range the employer reasonably expects to pay on hire, with penalties running $100 to $10,000 per violation — treat your range as that estimate everywhere, because a number you publish is a number you will negotiate inside of.

Paper any signing bonus carefully.

One-time money can close a gap without raising base — and California restricts taking it back.

For contracts entered on or after January 1, 2026, it is unlawful to require a worker to pay a penalty, fee or cost — including a quit fee or a replacement-hire fee — if employment ends.

A signing-bonus repayment clause survives only if every listed condition is met: it sits in a separate agreement; the worker is told they may consult a lawyer and gets at least five business days; repayment is interest-free and prorated over a retention period of no more than two years; the worker may instead defer the bonus to the end of that period; and repayment applies only on a voluntary quit or a firing for misconduct.

A worker can sue over a prohibited term for actual damages or $5,000 per worker, whichever is greater, plus injunctive relief and attorney's fees.

Clawback rules outside California were not part of our research — assume neither that a clause is enforceable nor that it is banned, and put the language in front of employment counsel.

Keep the non-pay checks moving in parallel.

The rest of the process — the scope document, the license and standing verification, the conflicts screen — belongs to our guide to how to hire an in-house counsel, and the offer should not go out before those clear.

Put the review on a calendar instead of waiting for a resignation to schedule it for you.

A band goes stale from three directions at once — the published data, the state thresholds and your own payroll.

Data first.

The BLS OEWS May 2025 release is the latest as of this writing; before each benchmarking round, check whether BLS has published a newer release and refresh the medians your band anchors to.

The NALP figures on this page are as of January 1, 2025 and cover the Class of 2025 — date-stamp whatever number you bring into the room so the comparison stays honest.

Thresholds second.

California's minimum wage is $16.90 per hour from January 1, 2026, which makes the state's exemption floor for a practicing lawyer $70,304 a year — and that floor moves whenever the minimum does.

Recompute it when the underlying rate moves, and check your own state's wage orders with your state labor agency.

Posted ranges third.

Under California's definition, the range you published is a good-faith estimate of what you reasonably expect to pay on hire, and stale ranges are how good faith decays — refresh the posting when the band moves rather than letting an old number recruit against you.

Internal last.

Set the first pay review when you make the offer and bring the refreshed band to it: a raise decided from data reads as a system, while one decided by a competing offer reads as a discount that got corrected.

The cheapest review is the one that keeps a lawyer who already knows where your exposure lives.

Employer information, not legal advice. The statutes and thresholds described here — salary-history bans, pay-transparency posting rules, California's stay-or-pay law and overtime exemptions — change and vary by state, and the figures on this page were checked as of October 2026, each with its own date stated above. Confirm the rules that apply to your firm with your state labor agency, your state bar's ethics counsel and employment counsel before you act on them.