#1 Gregory Doody, the $9.74 million dollar man
Proxy season is over, which means it’s time for the latest edition of Corporate Counsel’s GC compensation survey. In many ways, this is more interesting than PPP, because it’s actual individuals’ actual comp, rather than an aggregated, imaginary number.
It’s also interesting to note that at the highest levels, the GCs are blowing away the PPP of their former firms.
After the jump, we take a look at the BigLaw connections, which are extensive – at least seven of the top ten have done their time.The big story for the year is the top 3 coming out of nowhere – only #1 Gregory Doody of Calpine ($9.74 million total take-home) was ranked last year – all the way down at #84 (he’s not even with the company any more; the restructuring ace has been lured away to Charter Communications). Don Rosenberg of Qualcomm at #2 ($9.67 million) and Brackett Denniston of GE at #3 ($7.05 million) weren’t ranked last year. That was probably an anomaly for Denniston, who is often near the top of these lists.
Going through the top 10:
#1 – Doody came to Calpine from HealthSouth in 2006. Prior to that he was at a regional Alabama firm, Balch & Bingham.
#2 – Rosenberg was an IBM lifer (litigation, mostly) who had just been promoted to GC when Robert Weber was bought in from Jones Day as Chief Legal Officer between Rosenberg and CEO Sam Palmisano. Slighted, Rosenberg left for Apple but stayed less than a year before joining Qualcomm. No known BigLaw experience, although his ties to Cravath as outside counsel are deep.
#3 – Denniston came up through Goodwin Procter, made partner, then went to work for then-Governor Bill Weld. He joined GE in 1996.
#4 – Charles Wall, Philip Morris ($7.1 million), spent 20 years at Shook Hardy in Kansas City.
#5 – Alan Braverman, Walt Disney ($4.0 million), started out at Wilmer Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale) in 1976 and made partner in 1983. He started at ABC in 1993.
#6 – Gary Lynch, Morgan Stanley ($3.5 million), was a partner at Davis Polk until he joined Credit Suisse in 2001.
#7 – Paul Cappuccio, Time Warner ($3.1 million), was a partner at Kirkland’s DC office. More notably, he’s done an unbelievable trifecta of clerkships: Kozinski on the 9th Circuit; Scalia in OT 1987; and Kennedy in OT 1988.
#8 – Russell Deyo, Johnson & Johnson ($3.0 million), spent two years at a New York firm, but we don’t know which, sandwiched between a clerkship and eight years as an UASA in New Jersey.
#9 – Carrie Dwyer, Charles Schwab ($3.0 million), was an associate at Milbank in the 70s.
#10 – Louis Briskman, CBS ($2.9 million), has an office in the Ed Sullivan theater but no known BigLaw experience (although Dewey and Willkie are within spitting distance).
Just skimming through the rest, we recognize
- Thomas Strickland of United Health at #11, who was at Hogan & Hartson before UHG but just left to be Obama’s Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish, Wildlife and Parks;
- Alan Schnitzer of Travelers at #16, who just left Simpson Thacher a few years ago;
- David Drummond of Google (#23) incorporated the company 20 years ago as a partner at Wilson Sonsini;
- Bill Barr of Verizon (#24) just retired. He spent a few years at Shaw Pittman;
- Laura Shumacher of Abbott (#25) was at Schiff Hardin;
- Barclay Collins of Hess (#36) is stepping aside for Tim Goodell, formerly of White & Case who came in as GC in January;
- John Halvey of NYSE Euronext (#42) just took his job a little over a year ago from Milbank Tweed;
- Bill Cassazza of Aetna (#98) took over from Briskman (#10) a few years ago. Cassazza spent some time at Sullivan & Cromwell; and
- Curtis Shaw, Mr. Irrelevant at #100 (if this was a fantasy football draft), was at Shearman & Sterling and Mudge Rose in the 70s.
What other notable BigLaw veterans did we miss?
Related posts:
What about Tim Goodell at Hess? Where does Big Red fall?
He just started in January. The rankings are based on the companies' 2008 proxy statements. Check back this time next year.