Quoted

August 4th, 2022

Why Some Legal Chiefs Undersell Themselves During Pay Negotiations

Entertainment Partner Lisa E. Davis is quoted in the article, “Why Some Legal Chiefs Undersell Themselves During Pay Negotiations” published by Law.com. The article discusses how some GCs have been selling themselves short when negotiating their compensation packages, especially people of color and women. Lisa is quoted saying, “What I’ve seen is that often, people of color and white women tend not to negotiate as heavily or even know that they can really negotiate” and “As the chief legal officer, they’re thinking, ‘Well, I shouldn’t be hiring a lawyer to represent me.’” She adds, “And because there are so few people of color that have been at that level for a very long time, they just don’t have the institutional knowledge to know, ‘Hey, you’re a C-suite executive. Your deal can be negotiated.’”

The article details that some GCs shy away from getting aggressive during pay negotiations for fear of losing the job opportunity. In response to the executives having lawyers negotiate on their behalf Lisa says, “You can be the nice, exciting, dynamic executive that they want to hire. And I’m just the jerk that’s your lawyer, pushing for as much as I can get for you” and “There are some companies, particularly some tech companies, that don’t take kindly to having lawyers negotiate, even for nonlawyers. They just don’t want to deal with lawyers.” She adds, “So what some clients have done is hire me behind the scenes. I’m like Cyrano. And I’ll tell them what to ask for.”

Read the full article here. (Behind paywall)