Google’s President of Global Affairs, Kent Walker has found himself in a problem as three advocacy groups—The American Economic Liberties Project, Check My Ads, and the Tech Oversight Project—are urging the State Bar of California to take action against him. This is because they are claiming Walker played a key role in deleting the company’s important records, which are relevant to several federal trials, and violated his ethical obligations as a member of the California Bar.
According to a report by The Verge, in their letter to the Bar, the groups highlight Walker’s 2008 memo, which was brought up during the Department of Justice’s recent antitrust trial. The memo suggested a change in the company’s policy on chat message retention, shifting from “history on” to “history off.” It was sent when Walker was Google’s general counsel. The DOJ says this was a key moment for Google because it started hiding documents that might look bad. However, Google argues the memo is old and doesn’t matter now since it was written long before they had to save documents.
From Google’s legal team, Spokesperson Peter Schottenfels highlighted that the company has constantly responded to legal inquiries. This includes producing millions of documents, emails, and chat messages as well. However, opposing parties, in cases such as those filed by Epic Games and the DOJ, are claiming that Google’s lack of conversation records is an issue.
According to the advocacy groups, Walker had encouraged employees to delete the discoverable information and invoke attorney-client privilege unnecessarily in sensitive communications. They urge the Bar to investigate not only him but also any other California-based attorneys involved in these policies, as Walker’s actions were unethical. If Google is found guilty, these lawyers could face punishment like suspension or, in rare cases, losing their licenses. However, in 2023, the Bar opened 17,000 cases but only 243 lawyers were punished, and just 76 lost their licenses.
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