NextChapter

General Counsel (Chief Legal Officer, CLO) jobs: 234 open roles, pay, industries and skills

234 open General Counsel jobs (CLO), taken from employers’ own career sites and checked to still be open. Also listed as GC, Chief Legal Officer, CLO, Chief Counsel, Head of Legal. Listings that state pay show a median of $237,500 a year.

The market for General Counsel work

Every figure is counted from verified open listings. Pay is what the employer advertises for the job.

Verified open General Counsel jobs
234

Source: NextChapter, checked against employer career sites, last 7 days.

See the detail →
Median pay in listings that state it
$237,500

Source: NextChapter verified openings.

See the detail →
State with the most openings
California (49)

Source: NextChapter verified openings.

Industry hiring the most
Technology & Software (36%)

Source: NextChapter verified openings.

Listings that are remote
68%

Source: NextChapter verified openings.

See the detail →
Listings that ask for an AI skill
20%

Source: NextChapter verified openings, read in full.

What a General Counsel does

C-suite role in Legal.

The company’s legal work: contracts, litigation, regulatory exposure, corporate governance and advice to the board.

Usually reports to the CEO.

Other ways this role is written

  • General Counsel
  • GC
  • Chief Legal Officer
  • CLO
  • Chief Counsel
  • Head of Legal

Listings under any of these titles are counted on this page. Assistant, associate, manager and staff titles are not.

Open General Counsel jobs

Verified against the employer’s own career site within the last week.

Showing the newest 15 of about 234 verified open jobs here. Search all jobs

Search all General Counsel jobs

General Counsel salary

From 49 open listings that state pay. Annual, in US dollars, base pay only.

Lower quarter
$181,000
Median
$237,500
Upper quarter
$287,500

Leadership pay often includes bonus and equity that a listing does not state. Treat these figures as the floor of the conversation, not the whole package.

Best industries for General Counsel jobs

Employers hiring the most, as a share of listings whose employer has a known industry. Median pay shown where at least 8 listings state it.

Where General Counsel jobs are

States with the most open listings; median pay where at least 8 listings state it.

Skills General Counsel jobs ask for

Named in the listings themselves, as a share of 75 General Counsel listings that name skills. Leadership listings name fewer skills than individual-contributor ones, so this is a signal, not a checklist.

Most named in General Counsel listings

  1. 1. litigation47%
  2. 2. risk management31%
  3. 3. intellectual property27%
  4. 4. regulatory compliance25%
  5. 5. procurement19%
  6. 6. lean12%
  7. 7. audit12%
  8. 8. m&a12%
  9. 9. supply chain12%
  10. 10. hipaa8%

Across all Legal openings

  1. 1. litigation24%
  2. 2. regulatory compliance6%
  3. 3. risk management3%
  4. 4. excel3%
  5. 5. audit3%
  6. 6. procurement2%
  7. 7. intellectual property2%
  8. 8. project management2%
  9. 9. logistics1%
  10. 10. onboarding1%

AI skills for General Counsel jobs

Specific AI skills named in the full posting text, such as prompt engineering, AI governance or an AI tool. A general mention of AI does not count.

20% of 82 open General Counsel listings ask for a specific AI skill, against 2% of all Legal openings.

AI skills named most often

  1. 1. AI tools in daily work12%
  2. 2. AI governance and risk7%
  3. 3. AI adoption and change management5%
  4. 4. LLM application engineering4%
  5. 5. AI workflow automation2%
  6. 6. Gen-AI assistants (ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude)2%

Do AI skills change general counsel pay?

For Legal roles in general, as of November 2, 2026. This is the function’s figure, not one for general counsel alone: one title rarely has enough listings on both sides.

Among Legal listings, those that ask for an AI skill advertise a median $207,000, against $142,500 for those that never mention AI (+45.3%). That raw gap is not matched on level or industry.

Listings that ask for an AI skill
$207,000
median, from 288 paid listings
Listings that never mention AI
$142,500
median, from 725 paid listings

Advertised pay only: the midpoint of the range an employer posted, on live U.S. postings read from the full text. “Asks for an AI skill” means the posting names a specific AI skill; “no AI” means it never mentions AI. A difference in what is advertised is not a promise of what you would be paid, and it does not show that learning a skill causes a raise.

See the AI-skill pay table for every function · Check your own pay against these listings

How would your résumé fare for general counsel?

Paste it to see which skills these openings ask for and which your résumé leaves out. It runs here in your browser, so nothing you paste is sent.

Paste at least a few lines to check it.

Make it yours

Tell us your state and where to reach you. Attach your résumé if you want a real read on it.

Job titles under General Counsel

The exact titles employers use, with their own job and salary pages.

Employers hiring for General Counsel roles

  • YO AI Labs 40
  • Confidential 4
  • Airbus 3
  • City of New York 3
  • Verse Medical 2
  • Honeywell International 2
  • Mott Community College 2
  • Etched 2
  • Dept of Health/Mental Hygiene 2
  • Lockheed Martin 2
  • Career Launch 2
  • Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies 2

General Counsel questions

What does a General Counsel do?
The company’s legal work: contracts, litigation, regulatory exposure, corporate governance and advice to the board. Usually reports to the CEO.
What else is a General Counsel called?
The same job is also written GC, Chief Legal Officer, CLO, Chief Counsel, Head of Legal.
How many General Counsel jobs are open?
234 verified open General Counsel jobs, each checked against the employer’s own career site within the last week.
How much does a General Counsel make?
Among 49 open General Counsel listings that state pay, the median is $237,500 a year, and half of listings fall between $181,000 and $287,500. This is pay the employer advertises for the job, not total compensation such as bonus or equity.
Where are General Counsel jobs?
California (49), New York (43), Texas (27), Massachusetts (9) have the most open General Counsel listings. About 68% of listings that state a work arrangement are remote.
Which state pays a General Counsel the most?
Of the states with enough listings that state pay, California has the highest median at $275,000.
Which industries hire for General Counsel roles?
Technology & Software (36%), Government & Public Sector (13%), Healthcare & Hospital Systems (8%), Manufacturing & Industrial (8%), as a share of listings whose employer has a known industry.
What skills do General Counsel jobs ask for?
The skills named most often in open General Counsel listings are litigation, risk management, intellectual property, regulatory compliance, procurement.
Do General Counsel jobs ask for AI skills?
20% of 82 open General Counsel listings read in full name a specific AI skill. The most common is AI tools in daily work.

See where you stand in the market today

Your Market Reality Assessment: a plain-language read on your odds, jobs matched to you and a weekly plan. Free. No résumé needed.

Get my Market Reality Assessment

Hiring general counsel roles?

Leave your work email. We'll send how to reach people searching for general counsel jobs.

See employer options