The report helps legal operations professionals, General Counsel, and HR leaders better understand fair market compensation and recent salary trends.
Brightflag, the intuitive, AI-powered e-billing and matter management platform, published its 2025 Corporate Legal Operations Compensation Report.
Now in its fourth year, Brightflag’s annual report is the authoritative source for corporate legal operations compensation benchmarks and analysis.
“Brightflag’s report offers not just data, but the analysis needed to make it actionable,” said Kevin Cohn, report author and Chief Customer Officer at Brightflag. “Unlike other sources of compensation data, our report provides the necessary context to understand what truly drives pay in legal operations.”
The report helps legal operations professionals, General Counsel, and HR leaders better understand fair market compensation and recent salary trends. Hundreds of corporate legal operations professionals participated in the survey.
In recent years, workforce reductions and a sluggish hiring market have affected the in-house legal community, including legal operations professionals.
This shifting job market has raised concerns among legal ops experts about the profession’s future, particularly whether it is being reduced to a more tactical role, leading to lower compensation. Others have pointed to a preference for JDs in job specifications, suggesting that legal operations experience is being devalued in favor of hiring candidates with expertise in practicing law.
However, the report indicates that these concerns are unwarranted, as hiring and compensation trends remain consistent with last year.
Key findings from the report include:
- Heads of legal operations reported an average salary of $226k, 18% higher than last year.
- Legal operations professionals are receiving less compensation in the form of equity. Equity value represented 24% of base salary this year compared with 36% last year.
- Respondents from a paralegal/administrative background earn 35% less than those with other professional backgrounds.
You can view the full research report, including a breakdown of compensation by role, here.
About Brightflag
Brightflag’s e-billing and matter management platform provides complete visibility into legal work and helps in-house teams control costs. The intuitive AI-powered platform makes teams more productive by eliminating time-consuming tasks related to invoicing, reporting, and matter management. The company serves a global community of legal professionals from offices in New York, Ireland, and Australia.
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