Yelp wants Google’s lawyers tossed from the U.S. antitrust case. Yelp and a group of news organizations have urged a U.S. judge to bar a well-known legal firm from representing Google (GOOGL.O) in the Justice Department’s ad tech lawsuit because the company has a conflict of interest since it has previously represented them in cases relevant to the issue.
Yelp (YELP.N) and News/Media Alliance believe that law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison should be disqualified even though they are not defendants in the lawsuit but are the subjects of Google’s subpoenas.
To refute accusations that it has misused its market dominance for web advertising, Google has subpoenaed Yelp, a service review website, and the Alliance for information.
On Friday, attorneys representing Yelp and the media company informed U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema that “this case involves a major law firm switching sides against former clients” to support an accused monopolist.
A Paul Weiss spokeswoman stated that the “firm’s representation of Google is appropriate in all respects.”
In addition to its legal petition, Yelp declined to comment. An inquiry for comment from Google did not immediately receive a response.
One of two U.S. complaints charging Google of antitrust breaches, the attempt to remove Paul Weiss from his position is the newest ethical crisis in the case. Google has denied doing anything improper.
Yelp said that it retained Paul Weiss as antitrust counsel in 2016. Jonathan Kanter, director of antitrust for the Justice Department, was a member of the Paul Weiss team defending Yelp.
According to Charles Molster III and Brandon Kressin, the attorneys representing Yelp and New/Media Alliance, Google wants Yelp to reveal details regarding its advertising technology company and other subjects.
Google is also interested in learning more about Yelp’s Paul Weiss-related engagement letters, invoices, and bills.
This month, Brinkema rejected Google’s attempt to prevent Kanter from taking the lead in the lawsuit. According to Google, Kanter should be expelled for his employment as a private attorney for Yelp and other Google detractors.
The New York City Additionally, Paul Weiss, which has around 1,000 attorneys worldwide, defends Amazon.com in many antitrust actions.
The ad tech trial is anticipated to start early in the following year.
The United States et al. v. Google LLC, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, No. 1:23-cv-00108-LMB-JFA, is the case.