Was Google Evil? Blockbuster Trial Led by Boies & Carmody Set to Open in SF
By Sam Arman | August 16, 2025 | News & Features
David Boies and Bill Carmody are taking on Google in a privacy case kicking off Monday in San Francisco.
“Hey Google, why are two great trial lawyers suing Google?”
Google, AI Overview: “Well-known trial lawyers are suing Google for various reasons, including antitrust violations and various deceptive practices, primarily in the digital advertising space.”
OK, points to Google for transparency.
The trial kicking off in the San Francisco courtroom of U.S. District Court Judge Richard Seeborg on Monday is a quiet showstopper.
Representing the plaintiffs are two of the most successful plaintiff lawyers in the nation – David Boies of Boies Schiller Flexner and Bill Carmody of Susman Godfrey. Both have notched billions in wins, often in claims based in antitrust and deceptive behavior. And both have long histories winning big against Big Tech. Google them … you’ll see …
They represent Anibal Rodriguez and 98 million other Google users who thought by turning off a Google activity control “the “Supplemental Web & App Activity” – they had blocked Google’s collection and retention of their private information from apps that use Google services. Those apps include PayPal, Spotify, Lyft and millions of others.
Instead, Boies and Carmody claim, Google allowed the apps to retain and use that data, tracking users’ interactions on those apps, showing what they read, what they saw, what they did.
Didn’t Google once have as its motto “Don’t be evil?”
A jury will decide in Rodriguez et al. v. Google, case 3-20-cv-04688-RS. Jury selection begins Monday and trial is expected to last until Sept. 5.
Joining Boies and Carmody as lead plaintiffs are Mark Mao and James Lee of Boies, Amanda Bonn of Susman and John Yanchunis of Morgan & Morgan.
Cooley is anchoring Google’s defense, led by noted trial lawyer Michael Attanasio, Benedict Hur, Simona Agnolucci and Eduardo Santacana.
