The Department of Justice has accused tech giant Google of training employees to hide business communications from legal review “by using false requests for legal advice.” The DOJ has informed a judge overseeing an antitrust case against the Masters of the Universe that the company trains employees to add lawyers to written communications and seek legal advice even when not required so it could invoke attorney-client privilege when documents are requested as part of an investigation.
Engadget reports that the DOJ is accusing tech giant Google of specifically instructing its employees to protect business communications from discovery in legal disputes “by using false requests for legal advice.” The news comes shortly after the DOJ informed a judge overseeing the antitrust case against Google that the company directs its employees to add in-house lawyers to written communication, apply attorney-client privilege labels to them, and request legal advice even when it’s unnecessary.
Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Chrome, speaks at Google’s annual developer conference, Google I/O, in San Francisco on 28 June 2012 ( KIMIHIRO HOSHINO/AFP/GettyImages )
The DOJ is asking the judge in the antitrust case to sanction the company “for its extensive and intentional efforts to misuse the attorney-client privilege to hide business documents relevant” to the case. Lawyers wrote in the brief that the DOJ claims Google refers to the practice as “Communicate With Care” and has been a common practice since 2015. New employees are instructed to follow the practice without any discussion on whether it should only be used when legal advice is truly needed.
The same recommendation was reportedly made to teams handling search distribution for the department’s antitrust cases. Google allegedly told these teams to follow the same practice for any written communication containing revenue-sharing agreements and mobile application distribution agreements in an effort to protect them from discovery in cases of legal disputes.
A Google spokesperson commented on the situation, stating:
Our teams have conscientiously worked for years to respond to inquiries and litigation, and suggestions to the contrary are flatly wrong. Just like other American companies, we educate our employees about legal privilege and when to seek legal advice. And we have produced over four million documents to the DOJ in this case alone — including many that employees had considered potentially privileged.
Read more at Engadget here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com