Matthew Edwards and the team at Beacon Legal speak with hundreds of General Counsels each year to discuss market salary trends for their teams, and personally. The overwhelming feedback is that there is limited reliable salary data available for lawyers at the General Counsel or Head of Legal level.

Beacon Legal are hoping to change that.

Throughout August, the Beacon Legal team will be conducting a survey of Australia’s General Counsels, to collate data to produce the most accurate, reliable and insightful General Counsel Salary Report ever produced in Australia.

The report will:

• Show comparisons for General Counsel salaries in different industries, lengths of tenure, team size, company size and more;
• Show how the variables in a General Counsel role impact salaries compared against the market; and
• Generate a personalised salary report for a General Counsel to show comparisons against their data set in the market (upon request once the report is produced).

So far Beacon Legal have had over 150 responses to the survey within the first week, and the feedback from the General Counsel community has been fantastic. It’s clear that senior in-house lawyers are determined to understand how their salary compares against the market.

If you’re interested in contributing to the survey, please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and he will be in touch with the survey link.

Once you contribute, you will then be sent the results in the form of the Report.

Privacy Notice

All information collated throughout the survey period will be treated with strict confidence, in accordance with Beacon Legal’s privacy policy. No individual outside of yourself and Beacon Legal will have access to any personal salary information.

Thanks to all those who have contributed to the survey so far. We would encourage all Australian General Counsels to contribute. The more information we gather, the more insightful the report will be.