Sacramento, CA — Following new developments in the legal reckoning for Google executive Kent Walker’s years-long scheme to systematically destroy and conceal evidence pertinent to federal cases against Google, the American Economic Liberties Project, along with the Center for Digital Democracy, Check My Ads, and the Tech Oversight Project, submitted a supplemental letter to the State Bar of California reiterating the signers’ October 2024 call for disciplinary action against Walker and providing an overview of case developments since then.

“Kent Walker’s cover-up scheme has now been reprimanded by three federal judges and is the subject of a pending motion for sanctions against Google filed by over a dozen state attorneys general. Their message is clear: Walker’s shockingly unprofessional conduct warrants real consequences,” said Laurel Kilgour, Research Manager at the American Economic Liberties Project. “A lawyer widely understood to have coached his employer to systematically destroy evidence and abuse privilege should face disciplinary action, not be rewarded with industry-leading compensation. Allowing Walker to walk away unscathed would not only make a mockery of the State Bar of California’s Rules of Professional Conduct, but also set a dangerous precedent others may be tempted to follow.”

In January, over a dozen state attorneys general filed a motion for spoliation sanctions against Google in a Texas federal court, marking at least the fourth major antitrust enforcement action undermined by evidence destruction allegedly orchestrated by Kent Walker. This motion provides fresh details regarding the underlying misconduct Walker allegedly orchestrated at Google: the “Communicate with Care” policy of automatic internal chat deletion to facilitate “off-the-record chats,” and improper attempts to hide evidence by labeling routine emails as attorney-client privileged, even amidst federal investigations.

Among other things, the motion notes that the scheme began when Walker sent an email to employees on “email and instant-messaging culture,” warning that the company faced “several significant legal and regulatory matters”; and that “anything you write can become subject to review in legal discovery” and “may be used against” Google. In that same email, he announced the new Google policy to “make ‘off the record’ the Google corporate default setting for [Chats],” noting that “‘on the record’ conversations become part of your (more or less) permanent record and are added to Google’s long-term document storehouse.” Google maintained this practice even after it was legally obligated to preserve evidence in multiple antitrust lawsuits, allegedly resulting in the destruction of “millions” of chats– including those of senior decision-makers such as CEO Sundar Pichai.

The Texas state plaintiffs’ motion also freshly alleges that Google did not implement basic litigation hold requirements for any form of evidence for years after it was obligated to do so: “[o]f Google’s 202 custodians in this matter, 61 were not placed on a litigation hold until 2022 or later, more than 3 years after Texas issued the [civil investigative demand], 2 years after Google represented that it had implemented litigation holds, and 16 years after Google first anticipated ad tech litigation… Since Google did not issue timely litigation holds, Chats were still not retained even if the history setting was turned ‘on.’

Then, in April, Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, in her post-trial judgment in a federal antitrust case concerning Google’s ad tech monopoly, concluded that Google engaged in “systemic disregard of the evidentiary rules regarding spoliation of evidence.” Previously, Judge Brinkema had referred to Google’s concealment of evidence, which Mr. Walker coordinated, “a clear abuse of privilege.”

According to Law360, Mr. Walker “may have received the largest pay for an in-house lawyer in 2024, raking in nearly $30.2 million.” Google thus kept rewarding Mr. Walker long after he was questioned under oath in 2023 by a judge who found his “tap-dancing” answers evasive and unconvincing, and after multiple judges rebuked his evidence-destruction scheme over the past several years. Mr. Walker continues to having a high-profile role at the company, where he not only publicly comments on the merits of cases where he oversaw evidence destruction, but also seeks to influence policymakers on AI ethics and other tech policy matters.

Just yesterday, Google agreed to spend $500 million over the next decade revamping its compliance program following a shareholder lawsuit over failures—including in antitrust cases—further underscoring how the misconduct at issue, and Walker’s role in it, was severe enough to require a half-billion-dollar overhaul.

As Economic Liberties explained in its October 2024 letter, Walker’s conduct potentially violates various attorneys’ duties under California law and the California Professional Code of Conduct. In light of growing recognition of Walker’s alleged misconduct, the supplemental letter reiterates its call for California’s Chief Trial Counsel to investigate Mr. Walker’s conduct in the same manner it would any other member of the California State Bar.

Read the full letter here.

Read Economic Liberties’ October 2024 letter here.

See Economic Liberties’ Kent Walker Influence Tracker here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.