Merrill Lynch Counsel Tops Salary List of In-House Corporate Lawyers

A survey of the 100 highest-paid in-house corporate lawyers shows that the biggest salaries and bonuses in 1994 went to the top legal officers at Merrill Lynch & Co., Viacom Inc. and RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp.

The survey, which appears in the September issue of Corporate Counsel magazine, reports that Stephen Hammerman at Merrill Lynch was at the top of the list with total cash compensation of $2.80 million.

He was followed by Philippe Dauman at Viacom, who made $2.27 million, and Lawrence Ricciardi, who earned $1.95 million at RJR Nabisco last year. Ricciardi is now general counsel at International Business Machines Corp.

CCM, which is published by American Lawyer Media, reported that the median total cash compensation paid to top corporate counsel rose to $501,423 last year from $413,000 in 1993.

Others ranking among the highest-paid general counsels, followed by their employers and salaries, were:

Stuart Oran, UAL Corp., $1.68 million; Peter Haje, Time Warner Inc., $1.65 million; Benjamin Heineman Jr., General Electric Co., $1.42 million; Martin Coyle, TRW Inc., $1.31 million; Thomas Russo, Lehman Bros., $1.27 million; Murray Bring, Philip Morris Cos. Inc., $1.13 million, and Robert Mundheim, Salomon Inc., $1.04 million.