Base pay for in-house commercial/corporate counsel with roughly 3-9 years' experience. Glassdoor's total-pay median is inflated by large-tech equity; BLS lawyers median covers all lawyers including law firms.
Experience to get here
Entry level1-3 years post-JD (often from a law firm)
Typical title3-8 years
JD from an ABA-accredited law school and active bar membership in good standing in at least one US state are required in every posting cited.
Typical prior roles
Law firm associate (corporate, commercial or tech transactions)Contracts ManagerJunior in-house counsel / legal associateJudicial clerk
Must have
Drafting, redlining and negotiating commercial contracts (SaaS, MSAs, DPAs)
JD + active state bar license
Familiarity with privacy/data-protection and security terms
Turning legal issues into clear business advice
Experience with RFPs and enterprise customer negotiations
Milestones people hit first
Negotiated enterprise customer or vendor agreements to signature with minimal supervision
Built contract templates/playbooks that shortened sales cycles
Supported a financing, M&A or corporate-governance workstream
Advised HR or product on an employment or privacy question that changed a decision
Time: bar exam after JD; results in ~2-4 months (common; not published by the vendor) Prerequisites: JD; character and fitness review
'Licensed and in good standing with a state bar association' or 'active bar membership in at least one US jurisdiction' is required in all current postings.
An Introduction to American LawFREEUniversity of Pennsylvania (Coursera) · course · free to enroll; certificate paid · about 10-12 hoursSurvey for non-lawyers (contracts managers, paralegals) considering the JD route.
Privacy Law and Data ProtectionFREEUniversity of Pennsylvania (Coursera) · course · free to enroll; certificate paid · about 13 hoursDPAs and privacy terms are now in nearly every commercial contract.
Regulatory Compliance SpecializationFREEUniversity of Pennsylvania (Coursera) · learning path · free to enroll; certificate paid · about 40-46 hoursRegulatory context for the advice in-house counsel gives beyond contracts.
JD and bar admission are credentials, not certifications; their URLs point to current postings/Robert Half pages that state the requirement, and costs (law-school tuition, bar fees) are not published by the vendor. No Robert Half 'corporate counsel' job page exists (the URL is an index), so the salary-trends article's in-house figure is used. The ACC resource library page was partially broken when reviewed.
Figures are US, from the sources listed, and change often; verify before deciding.