Washington, D.C. — As Google’s simultaneous antitrust trials continue to reveal the extent of systematic, companywide evidence destruction at the direction of former General Counsel Kent Walker—drawing striking rebukes from three federal judges—the American Economic Liberties Project, CheckMyAds, and Tech Oversight Project today sent a letter calling for the State Bar of California to investigate Walker for violating the California Professional Code of Conduct.

“Google employees are known for failing up, and Kent Walker may be the strongest case in point,” said Lee Hepner, Sr. Legal Counsel at the American Economic Liberties Project. “What we are seeking is what multiple laws enable, which is an investigation and appropriate accountability for executives who have coached their clients on how to get away with breaking the law. We allege that Walker did exactly that, and, in doing so, violated the Rules of Professional Conduct. Instead of accountability, he was given a promotion. An investigation would deter recidivism, both at Google itself and among potential copycat monopolists.”

The letter details Walker’s history of problematic conduct, beginning with the 2008 “Walker Memo.” That policy statement led to the practice of “history off“ communications—which Googlers internally referred to as “Vegas mode” (as in “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”), and which ultimately produced damning evidence such as one employee writing, “Like, I could see this being done in a way that leads to law suits/ Omfg/ History is on, jesus.” The Walker memo also coached employees to copy lawyers on emails with no legal content, in order to hide ordinary business behind attorney-client privilege. When D.C. District Judge Amit Mehta questioned Google’s claims that 140,000 documents were privileged in the search antitrust trial he recently concluded, 98,000 were immediately submitted to the Justice Department, making clear the claims were a ruse.

Confronted with evidence of rampant document destruction, federal judges have condemned Mr. Walker’s communications protocol in strikingly forthright terms. Last month, Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia, called Google’s concealment of evidence “a clear abuse of privilege,” agreeing to consider the Justice Department’s motion asking for an “adverse inference” under which she would presume the company had destroyed evidence at Walker’s direction before trial. Judge Mehta called the behavior “negligent” and “shocking.” And last year in yet another trial, Judge James Donato of the Northern District of California excoriated the company over similar shenanigans, calling them “a frontal assault on the fair administration of justice” and “the most serious and disturbing evidence I have ever seen in my decade on the bench.”

As alleged in the letter, Walker’s conduct potentially violates various attorneys’ duties under California law and the California Professional Code of Conduct, which expressly prohibits a lawyer from counseling or assisting a client in conduct that the lawyer knows is a violation of “any law, rule, or ruling of a tribunal.” In Cedar-Sinai Med. Ctr. v. Superior Court, 18 Cal.4th 1 (1998), the California Supreme Court held that “lawyers are subject to discipline, including suspension and disbarment, for participating in the suppression or destruction of evidence.”

The letter urges the Chief Trial Counsel to investigate Mr. Walker’s conduct in the same manner it would any other member of the California State Bar. An investigation may be initiated by complaint of any attorney or member of the public. The letter also urges an investigation of the extent to which other California attorneys who served as Walker’s colleagues or outside counsel were aware of or aided in this longstanding course of conduct, and may therefore have violated the Professional Code of Conduct as well.

Read the full letter here.

Read our “High-Level Framework on Google Search Remedies” here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.