Why does the GC make this much? That's 27K billable hours at $1K/hr. Is it because she knows where the bodies are burried?
Probably due to the vast scope of responsibilities and ramifications if something goes wrong?
I can't imagine that being in charge of all of Apple's legal concerns is a walk in the park.
"General" in the word "General Counsel" doesn't mean it's doing generic daily legal works. It means very similar to the one in "General Manager", which is a common title for SVP in that they're in charge for everything in their area. It's very close to C-suite for the legal department.
Would $1M/yr at a $10B company make sense, $5M? What about a $100B company? How many of those are there?
Apple is a $1T company. That’s an insane size. Very difficult to easily reason about.
How much per year do you think Elon Musk pays his personal counsel? Bill Gates? You might be surprised…