Instead he went into some legalistic lock down mode and refused to consider even a token severance.
I can see going into some kind of "legalistic lock down mode" if you suddenly are worried about a lawsuit, but in that case it might be prudent to get an actual lawyer's advice. I'm not a lawyer myself, but it seems unlikely that the CEO's actions here are something that the company's lawyer would've advised. It sounds like she was asking for honestly much less than she should've been asking for, and unless there's something I'm missing, I can't believe it was in the company's interests for him to refuse that offer. She was offering to resign in return for quite modest severance conditions, and my guess is that a corporate lawyer would've been happy to advise the CEO to accept the offer and close the affair.
I can see going into some kind of "legalistic lock down mode" if you suddenly are worried about a lawsuit, but in that case it might be prudent to get an actual lawyer's advice. I'm not a lawyer myself, but it seems unlikely that the CEO's actions here are something that the company's lawyer would've advised. It sounds like she was asking for honestly much less than she should've been asking for, and unless there's something I'm missing, I can't believe it was in the company's interests for him to refuse that offer. She was offering to resign in return for quite modest severance conditions, and my guess is that a corporate lawyer would've been happy to advise the CEO to accept the offer and close the affair.