A recent survey suggests that pay for corporate General Counsel will be flat at best this year, and that GCs are working harder because they have lost internal resources.

The silver lining is that for some in-house lawyers deferred compensation is higher.  As companies’ bottom lines increase, deferred comp should grown.   As one consultant described it:  “What you are seeing is these folks are being hired in at slightly less in base compensation than in the past, but they are being asked to make an investment in the company and given additional stock options. The deferred compensation total package may appear to be more, but the actual money is probably less than it was two years ago.”

Corporations are looking for ways to cut all types of expenses, and salaries of in-house lawyers are not exempt.   Nonetheless, as Robert T. Graff, managing director of Major, Lindsey & Africa, said, “The value of CLOs is probably increased. They’re all working harder for less money. They’re all stressed.”

Typically, companies are cutting down on their use of outside counsel and taking more work in house to trim costs. At the same time, they’re freezing hiring and often salaries. “A lot of companies are not paying their normal target bonus,” Graff added.