The US Department of Justice requested penalties to Google for misuse of attorney-client privilege to hide litigation emails.
In a program called “Communicate with Care,” Google instructs employees to add a copy lawyer or include a generic “request” for legal advice to conceal confidential business communications, regardless of need or demand for legal advice.
Often the attorney is included in a copy in these emails “no answer”the Justice Department told the court.
The fact that lawyers often do not respond to emails “emphasizes that these communications are not genuine requests for legal advice, but rather an effort to conceal potential evidence.”
The Department of Justice wants “compel the disclosure of documents that Google unjustifiably claims as attorney-client privilege.”
The Department claims that Google’s Communicate with Care program protects communications that would be relevant to monopoly claims against the company.
Evidence provided includes slides of training presentations, such as one that instructed employees to add an attorney in the “To:” field, mark the email as “Attorney/Client Privilege” and “Consult Attorney”.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai emailed YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki in January 2018 about an upcoming press release. “Although the email was addressed to a non-lawyer (Susan Wojcicki) about an unlawful press matter, Pichai wrote ‘Privileged Attorney Client’ and ‘Council of Kent pls’ at the top.
It appears that Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president and general counsel (now Google’s chief legal officer), never responded to the email. This email was initially withheld by Google and was only released after the complainants objected to it.