As the general counsel role at public companies continues to expand—from watchdog to a more pivotal strategy and risk management role, exacerbated by a pandemic—their compensation is steadily on the rise as well, according to the latest in-house counsel compensation report by Equilar and executive search firm BarkerGilmore.

Jaclyn Jaeger is a freelance contributor to Compliance Week after working for the company for 15 years. She writes on a wide variety of topics, including ethics and compliance, risk management, legal,...