Google's requests for law firm documents are an 'abuse of the litigation process,' filing contends
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Google is going on a “fishing expedition” for “highly confidential” documents between Jenner & Block and its clients, including the Motion Picture Association of America, the law firm contends in a legal filing (PDF) on Monday.
Jenner & Block called Google’s quest for the documents an “abuse of the litigation process,” the National Law Journal (sub.req.) reports. Google says it wants the documents to show Jenner lobbyists helped orchestrate actions against the Internet search engine by Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood.
“The most fundamental purpose of these subpoenas,” Jenner’s filing says, “is to send a message to anyone who dares to seek government redress for Google’s facilitation of unlawful conduct: If you and your attorneys exercise their First Amendment right to seek redress from a government official, Google will come after you.”
Google has claimed in a lawsuit that Hood’s effort to investigate Google for alleged state law violations is pre-empted by federal law. Hood’s probe had sought information on whether Google encourages sales of objectionable third-party content, such as illegal drugs and pirated material.
Jenner & Block says it has already agreed to turn over documents exchanged with Hood, but Google isn’t satisfied. “Google demands documents that the attorney general never saw, and that instead include the internal deliberations of the MPAA, its communications with its members, and the legal advice of Jenner … on the misguided theory that such documents somehow are probative of Attorney General Hood’s intent,” the filing says.
Many of the documents sought are protected by attorney-client privilege and First Amendment associational privileges, Jenner contends.
