The former head of legal affairs at media company Carlton received a multi-million pound pay-off after the business merged with ITV rival Granada, it was revealed last week.

Solicitor David Abdoo was awarded 4.5 million under an equity participation scheme following his departure from Carlton along with ousted chairman Michael Green, the company confirmed.

Despite the size of Mr Abdoo's pay-off, Nick Creed, in-house legal recruitment consultant at Hays ZMB, warned that most general counsel were still nave when it came to negotiating their own employment contracts and did not give enough consideration to severance packages.

He said: 'General counsel do not think about their contracts anything like as thoroughly as someone who is on the board in a non-legal capacity.

There is a slight navety - they are only really beginning to notice that this is an issue.'

He added: 'The more lawyers move into businesses at a senior management level, the more likely they are to get caught up in changes to business structures.'

Carol Williams, head of legal at Northern Foods and chairwoman of the Law Society's Commerce & Industry Group, said: 'I am always surprised when people talk about job security in-house - it is just as risky as anywhere else.'

Rachel Rothwell