Oct 24 (Reuters) – Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google said on Friday that it has agreed to pay up to $190 million in legal fees to private law firms representing Texas as part of a $1.375 billion consumer privacy settlement with the state.Google in a court filing also said it would pay $71 million in legal fees to the Texas attorney general’s office as part of the May settlement.
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Texas’s lawyers at law firm Norton Rose Fulbright and Google asked the state court in Midland to issue a final judgment based on the settlement.
Norton Rose and the attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Google in a statement said the accord “settles a raft of old claims, many of which have already been resolved elsewhere, concerning product policies we have long since changed.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Google in 2022, alleging it collected face geometry and voiceprints from residents without consent, tracked users’ locations despite disabled settings, and misled users about the privacy protections of Incognito mode, which is meant to provide private browsing.
Paxton in announcing the settlement in May said that “in Texas, Big Tech is not above the law.” Google did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement.
Texas’ legal team from 3,000-attorney Norton Rose included Joseph Graham, a litigation leader in the firm’s Houston office. Two smaller law firms, Crenshaw, Dupree & Milam and Cotton Bledsoe Tighe & Dawson, also represented the state.
Norton Rose’s 2022 retainer agreement with Texas showed that it could collect as much as $3,780 an hour or 27% of any successful recovery, whichever is less.
State attorneys general routinely hire private law firms to help them pursue major lawsuits against companies.
Texas is working with law firms Cooper & Kirk and Buzbee Law Firm for its antitrust lawsuit against asset managers BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street.Last year, Chicago-founded Keller Postman and Dallas-founded McKool Smith were expected to receive a combined $142.6 million for their work on a 2022 consumer privacy lawsuit for Texas against Facebook parent Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab.
Meta agreed last year to settle the lawsuit for $1.4 billion.
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Reporting by Mike Scarcella
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