Lowe’s Gives New Legal Chief $12 Million After Albertson’s Move

Lowe’s Cos.’ legal chief received more than $12.1 million in compensation after joining last year, including a bonus and stock to help offset awards she forfeited by leaving Albertson’s Cos. Inc.

Juliette Pryor received more than a $3 million bonus paid in three installments through January 2024, Lowe’s proxy filing shows. The chief legal officer also received nearly $5.6 million in stock awards that will vest over three years.

Pryor joined Lowe’s in May 2023 after serving as Albertson’s top lawyer for nearly three years. She left as the grocer faced an antitrust review of its $25 billion sale to Kroger Co., which the Federal Trade Commission and several US states attorneys general sued to block in February.

She is working at Lowe’s as the Mooresville, North Carolina-based home improvement retailer battles a slowdown in customer spending due to inflation and a sluggish housing market. In January the company said it would cut some corporate jobs. Along with rival Home Depot Inc., Lowe’s has been pushing into the more lucrative professional services market.

Lowe’s and Pryor didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Pryor earned $561,000 in base salary, more than $353,000 in non-equity incentive plan cash compensation and more than $251,000 in relocation benefits, the company’s proxy said. Going forward, her full-year salary will be $740,000, the filing shows.

She owns $3.7 million in Albertson’s stock, as well as Lowe’s shares valued at nearly $7 million, Bloomberg data shows.

Pryor started her career at International Business Machines Corp. before taking general counsel jobs at e.spire Communications Inc., US Foods Holding Corp., and Cox Enterprises Inc.

Lowe’s recruited Pryor to succeed Ross “Bill” McCanless, who retired after holding the legal chief role for more than a decade. Lowe’s didn’t list McCanless as among its five highest-paid executives within the past three years.

Albertson’s hired Thomas Moriarty, a former top lawyer at CVS Health Corp., to succeed Pryor, who earned more than $5 million in total compensation from the Boise, Idaho-based company in 2022, per its most recent filing. Albertson’s hasn’t yet issued a proxy statement for 2023.

Home Depot’s general counsel Teresa Wynn Roseborough earned $3.4 million in 2023, the company noted in a proxy filing last month. She joined the Atlanta-based company in 2011.