iPad is iCloud locked to a defunct address I was gifted an iPad from a restaurant owner. This iPad was provided to the restaurant and used to relay orders from a third party service who would deliver their food outside their normal delivery range.

The third-party company that provided the iPad is now defunct, and the iCloud email address has been out of use for long enough to bounce emails back to me immediately.

I am aware of the concept of circumventing iCloud activation lock and that is not what I am looking for. I am looking to have Apple verify that the current account is defunct and to legitimately remove the account from the iPad.

What steps do I take to have Apple review and potentially remove an iCloud account from my iDevice?
You can present the original purchase receipt showing the serial number to Apple to have them unilaterally remove the lock.

The alternative is to revive the "defunct" account. Since Apple doesn't delete them, you can go through the password reset procedure to reclaim access to the defunct iCloud account. Once you are logged in to the locking account, removal of the lock is trivial.

Otherwise, bypassing the lock is not feasible.