To provide additional perspective on the findings in General Counsel Pay Trends, Equilar spoke with John Gilmore, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at BarkerGilmore. In the conversation, Mr. Gilmore discussed the evolving role of General Counsel and the qualities and skills that distinguish successful candidates.
In such a competitive profession, what qualities or skills can separate a General Counsel from the rest of the pack these days?
- The formula for a strong General Counsel resume is straightforward: a top legal education, excellent law firm training, and a demonstrated track record of success in-house. But I always say that the resume gets you to the table; what’s not on the resume gets you hired.
- What separates the best General Counsel today is their ability to move beyond being an excellent lawyer and become an indispensable business advisor. The strongest candidates bring commercial judgment, strategic thinking, executive presence, emotional intelligence, courage, and the ability to communicate complex issues in a way that enables decisions rather than simply identifies risk.
- One of our senior advisors, a former General Counsel, uses a simple test: Does the CEO stop by the GC’s office to talk about something that has nothing to do with the law? When the CEO seeks the General Counsel’s perspective on strategy, talent, an acquisition, an organizational challenge, or another important business decision, that GC has earned a level of trust that goes far beyond legal expertise.
- Ultimately, the best General Counsel understands the business deeply enough to know when to protect it, when to challenge it, and when to help move it forward.
- In an interview, it is not just what a candidate says, but how they say it. The strongest General Counsel candidates demonstrate the right balance of humility and confidence, along with the executive presence and emotional intelligence to influence others. At this level, the ability to build trust, communicate with conviction, and bring others along can be just as important as the substance of the answer.
What topics are coming up in searches now that you barely saw even just a few years ago?
Artificial intelligence is probably the clearest example. Just a few years ago, AI rarely surfaced as a meaningful consideration in a General Counsel search. Today, companies are asking candidates about AI governance and adoption, intellectual property, privacy, cybersecurity, workforce implications, and even how legal departments themselves should use emerging technologies. Boards and CEOs increasingly expect their General Counsel to have a thoughtful point of view on both the opportunities and the risks.
But AI is part of a broader shift. The range of business issues now falling within the General Counsel’s mandate has expanded considerably. Geopolitical risk, cybersecurity, corporate reputation, regulatory complexity, crisis preparedness, and organizational transformation are increasingly part of conversations about the ideal candidate.
Companies are not looking for a General Counsel who is a technical expert in every emerging issue. They are looking for an executive with the judgment, curiosity, adaptability, and leadership ability to navigate challenges that may not have even existed when that individual began practicing law. That ability to anticipate what is coming next and help the business prepare for it is becoming an increasingly important differentiator.
What’s one piece of advice you’d give a company about to start a General Counsel search?
Be clear about what the organization needs from its next General Counsel but be careful not to be overly prescriptive about what that person must look like on paper. Otherwise, you may screen out an exceptional candidate before ever meeting them.
Too many searches begin with a rigid checklist: a certain number of years in the industry, a particular law firm pedigree, public company experience, or highly specific technical expertise. Those credentials can certainly matter, but they should not become artificial barriers to great talent.
Some of the most successful General Counsel hires come from outside the expected profile. Focus first on the outcomes the company needs from the role and the leadership qualities required to achieve them. Define the destination but remain open-minded about who can get you there.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
The increasing importance of the General Counsel role has also raised the stakes for getting the hire right. A GC appointment sends a powerful message to the board, executive team, employees, and marketplace, and a hire that does not work out can be costly and disruptive. As a result, companies are understandably becoming more deliberate and selective.
CEOs and boards want to see more candidates, conduct more extensive assessments, and spend more time ensuring they have the right combination of experience, judgment, leadership ability, and cultural fit. That has lengthened the search and interview process, even for exceptionally qualified candidates.
For candidates, my advice is simple: be patient and stay engaged. A lengthy process is not necessarily a reflection of uncertainty about you; it is often a reflection of how important the decision has become. Don’t allow frustration with the process to affect how you show up.
For the right General Counsel opportunity, the position and the impact you can have once you earn it will be worth the effort.
A Deep Dive: The New Shape of the General Counsel
The number of General Counsel named as executive officers fell 17.1% this year, the steepest drop we’ve tracked. What do you think is driving that pullback?
The decline is not entirely surprising given the significant level of turnover and hiring in the General Counsel role over the past several years. When a long-tenured GC departs and is replaced by a first-time General Counsel, whether through an internal promotion or external hire, the incoming executive often does not immediately have the same compensation, organizational stature, or level of responsibility as the predecessor.
In our experience, it can take several years for a new General Counsel to establish the level of trust and influence with the CEO, executive leadership team, and board that comes with being recognized among the company’s most senior executive officers. As newer GCs gain tenure and become more deeply involved in enterprise strategy and decision-making, we would expect more to move into that group.
The pay gap between female and male General Counsel nearly doubled this year, from 8.5% to 16.1%. What’s behind that shift?
The magnitude of the difference is notable, particularly because female General Counsel out-earned male General Counsel across every major compensation component in 2025. It is also an encouraging development given the historical conversation around gender pay disparities.
However, the data should not be interpreted to suggest that gender itself is driving compensation. General Counsel pay is influenced by company size, industry, ownership structure, experience, role complexity, performance, and the structure of short- and long-term incentives.
What we are seeing in the market is a growing number of highly accomplished women reaching the GC seat at major corporations, combined with strong competition for proven female legal executives. Compensation ultimately reflects the value an executive brings to an organization and the compensation required to attract and retain top talent. The 2025 results may be another indication that more women are reaching the most senior and most highly compensated General Counsel positions.
Stock awards grew 30.9% since 2021, faster than any other component of GC pay. What’s pushing boards to lean further into equity for their General Counsel?
The increased use of equity reflects the broader evolution of the General Counsel from functional leader to enterprise executive. As GCs become more deeply involved in strategy, governance, transformation, risk, reputation, and long-term value creation, their compensation structures increasingly resemble those of other members of the executive leadership team.
Equity also aligns the General Counsel with long-term organizational performance while serving as an important retention tool for highly valued executives.
More fundamentally, it signals changing expectations for the role. Companies increasingly want legal leaders who do more than protect enterprise value. The most impactful GCs also help create and preserve value by bringing business judgment and legal perspective to the organization’s most consequential decisions.
The share of General Counsel with five years of tenure or less grew to 32.4% this year, up from a quarter of the population last year. What’s driving that shift toward less-tenured GCs?
The significant level of GC hiring and turnover over the past several years is naturally beginning to show up in tenure data. But a broader story sits behind that movement: The expectations placed on General Counsel have changed considerably in a relatively short period.
Business transformation, changes in ownership or leadership, increased regulatory complexity, expansion into new markets, technological disruption, and evolving board expectations can all change what an organization needs from its General Counsel. CEOs are increasingly looking for proven legal executives who can operate as business leaders and strategic advisors, not simply manage the legal function.
As the GC role becomes more consequential, alignment between the executive’s capabilities and the company’s strategic direction becomes increasingly important. Such shifts can lead organizations to make a change even when an incumbent GC has been successful under a different set of circumstances.
New GC appointments to public company boards fell sharply this year, even as total GC-held board seats kept climbing. What’s driving that?
Board composition evolves slowly, so we would be cautious about drawing too much from a one-year decline in new appointments. The fact that total GC-held board seats continued to increase is arguably the more important long-term indicator: Accomplished General Counsel continue to demonstrate that their experience can translate effectively to the boardroom.
The larger question is why GCs remain relatively underrepresented on public company boards despite possessing many of the capabilities modern boards increasingly need. Accomplished General Counsel bring governance expertise, risk judgment, regulatory perspective, crisis leadership, and extensive experience advising CEOs and directors through consequential decisions.
At the same time, legal expertise alone does not make an executive board-ready. GCs who aspire to public company boards need to demonstrate broad commercial perspective, financial fluency, strategic experience, and the ability to contribute across the full range of issues on a board’s agenda. The strongest candidates are viewed not simply as lawyers, but as enterprise executives who happen to have exceptional legal expertise.
Women gained ground in GC board seats this year even as their share of the GC role itself dipped slightly. What’s your read on that?
The continued growth in female GC board representation is encouraging. Women accounted for 45.6% of GC-held board seats in 2025, bringing GC board representation close to gender parity.
One explanation may be that accomplished female GCs are increasingly building precisely the leadership profiles boards value: governance expertise, strategic judgment, risk oversight, crisis management, and extensive experience operating at the intersection of management and the board.
It is important to recognize that the populations represented in the two data sets are different, so we would be cautious about drawing a direct statistical relationship between female representation in GC roles and female representation among GC-held board seats.
Still, the broader direction is meaningful. As more women accumulate substantial experience as enterprise-level legal executives, the pool of highly qualified female GC candidates for public company boards continues to deepen.
John Gilmore is co-founder and Managing Partner of BarkerGilmore with over three decades of executive search experience. John has developed trusted relationships with General Counsel and C-suite leaders across the country. He has unfettered access to the extraordinary talent they seek and an innate ability to quickly identify a substantive and cultural match. With a profound institutional understanding of how in-house legal and compliance departments function most effectively, John has earned a reputation as one of the top executive search consultants for General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer placements.
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