GC Influencers
Most Influential GCs - Global-wide
David A Zapolsky of Amazon.com, Inc
Few in-house legal professionals will ever live to oversee the kind of skyrocketing growth that David Zapolsky has experienced in his two decades at Amazon. After arriving in 1999, via private practice roles at Dorsey & Whitney, Bogle & Gates and Wachtell, the soon-to-be web giant was still headquartered in a run-down Seattle neighbourhood, but in the intervening twenty years he has been part of a senior executive team which has seen the company blossom into a diversified corporate behemoth whose market capitalisation surpassed USD1 trillion for a brief period in 2018. Zapolsky assumed the general counsel’s position in 2012, after an in-house career spent largely focussing on litigation matters, and is now charged leading an 800-strong team which handles the business’s wide-ranging legal, compliance and policy affairs – no mean feat for an organisation which has branched out from its ecommerce roots to include a publishing arm, web services division, media studio and a brick-and-mortar retail wing. Zapolsky is also credited with helping to found Amazon’s pro bono programme, known as the Amazon Justice League, whose actions have included providing legal services to local Seattle residents, aiding in adoption applications and providing support to a legal challenge against President Trump’s travel ban instituted against seven Muslim-majority nations. Zapolsky commands respect from the wider legal community, with one insider reporting: “David is extraordinary and, without a doubt, one of the best general counsel of any public company out there. One of the best indicators is the people he’s hired – they amazing lawyers, which is a mark of extraordinary ability at the top. His forethought is incredibly helpful to Amazon.”