Risk Update

RISK COMPENSATION INSIGHT — 2026-2027 Law Firm Risk Compensation Survey Report and Staff Benchmarks (Now Available)

Posted Dan Bressler

Now in its fifth year, the 2026-2027 Law Firm Risk Staffing Compensation Survey report is now on its way to those who participated! (And also now on file with the US Copyright Office, so don’t go asking your friends for their copy.) If you took the survey, please watch for your reports/benchmarks via email today!

This year, we saw 78 participants share detail on 576 US staff and management positions.

We had great response levels from managers in the optional Q&A portion. That generated another wave of fascinating input and response, coming in at 12 pages of commentary, which is presented in the report, grouped by firm size bands, addressing five questions:

    1. What are your top challenges tied to risk staff recruiting, training, and career development?
    2. What are your goals for risk staff recruiting, training, and career development in 2027?
    3. To what extent are you adding new/emerging roles to your risk organization (e.g. OCG, AI related)? If new roles aren’t yet defined or funded, which would you like to add if possible?
    4. Are there staffing model changes you’re pursuing or would like to pursue moving forward?
    5. What risk initiatives, if any, is your firm focusing fresh investment in new staff, new resources for 2027?

 

For those who participated, I expect to have PDFs in your inboxes by the end of the day. Depending on your participation:

  • Managers who contributed team data and participated in the Q&A will receive the “extended edition” of the report, coming in at 30 pages, which includes peer Q&A responses
  • Managers who contributed team data only will receive the “standard edition” of the report, which includes complete data on all positions and compensation data included in the extended version (20 pages).
  • Individual contributors who shared their personal details, will receive a personal benchmark compensation summary relevant to their specific role and firm demographics.

 

If you didn’t participate…

  • If your law firm did not participate in the survey, copies are available for a fee.
  • If you didn’t participate individually, personalized benchmarks are also available for a (lower) fee.
  • Please get in touch for details. 

 

I’d like to thank everyone who took the survey this year.

Thoughts are brewing for 2027.

Thanks!