Google can keep law firm Paul Weiss in DOJ case, US judge rules

Yelp

13/10/2023 21:52

By Mike Scarcella
       Oct 13 (Reuters) - A federal judge in Virginia on Friday
declined to bar the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton &
Garrison from defending Google in the U.S. Justice Department's
lawsuit accusing the Alphabet  GOOGL.O  unit of monopolizing
digital advertising technologies.
    U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia,
rejected a request from two former Paul Weiss clients — Yelp
 YELP.N  and News/Media Alliance — to disqualify the law firm, a
court filing showed.
    Brinkema ordered the removal of one of Google's lawyers at
Paul Weiss, however, and said the company could not challenge
the credibility of any Yelp witness, a spokesperson for Yelp
said after a hearing on the disqualification bid.
        "We believe that safeguarding the integrity of the
judicial process requires that Paul Weiss, as Yelp's former law
firm on competition matters, be barred from representing Google
at all," Yelp said in a statement. 
    Yelp and the news organization, which are not defendants in
the case, said Google had sought information from them as part
of its effort to challenge the government's allegations.
    Attorneys for Yelp and the media coalition accused Paul
Weiss of switching sides, telling the court that the firm
previously represented them on matters related to the digital
ads lawsuit.
    Paul Weiss defended its role as Google's lead law firm in
the case, arguing that the Justice Department's case was not
"substantially related" to any of the work that the firm
provided to Yelp and the news alliance.
    A spokesperson for Paul Weiss declined to comment. In a
filing, the firm said it has spent more than 10,000 hours so far
on Google's defense. 
    Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company has denied the government's antitrust allegations,
and a trial is expected in the case next year.
    Google in September tried unsuccessfully to force the
Justice Department's antitrust head, Jonathan Kanter, to be
disqualified from leading the ad tech case based on his prior
work in private practice for critics of Google, including Yelp.
    
    The case is United States et al v. Google LLC, U.S. District
Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, No.
1:23-cv-00108-LMB-JFA.
    
    Read more:
    Law firm Paul Weiss fights to remain on Google's ad tech
antitrust defense
    Yelp wants Google's lawyers tossed from US antitrust case
    US judge will not order Justice Dept. official to exit
Google advertising case
    Justice Dept. team suing Google includes longtime Paul Weiss
partner

 (Reporting by Mike Scarcella)
 ((Mike.Scarcella@thomsonreuters.com;))