Image: ShutterstockWashington Wrap: Google Marks 21st Birthday With New Lobbyist on Its Side
Mark Isakowitz, former chief of staff to Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman, will lead Google's public affairs efforts in North America as regulatory pressures mount.
September 30, 2019 at 03:05 PM
3 minute read
Washington Wrap is a weekly look at industry news and Big Law moves shaping the legal business in Washington, D.C. Send news tips and lateral moves to Ryan Lovelace at [email protected].
Google celebrated its 21st anniversary on Friday, marking the occasion when Stanford doctorate students Sergey Brin and Larry Page published a paper about a "large-scale search engine." Brin and Page wrote that they chose the name because it was the common spelling of "googol, or 10100," and it fit their mission to build a massive search engine.
Now that Brin and Page are multibillionaires, Google answers trillions of queries on an annual basis and regulatory scrutiny is on the rise, the company also has another key mission: lobbying on its own behalf.
Washington, D.C.-based Mark Isakowitz in D.C. will head public affairs and policy for the company in the United States and Canada, Google confirmed Friday. Isakowitz was formerly chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and arrives at a time when calls for congressional scrutiny of Google and other Big Tech companies are growing louder.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, a vocal critic of social media companies, noted Google's 21st birthday in a Tweet acknowledging the tech giant as a target.
Presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, has written that now is the time to "break up" Google and its large competitors on the internet, and activists and lawyers on the political right and left have taken aim at leading internet companies with the formation of new groups and new campaigns in recent weeks.
Former Senate GOP aides formed the Internet Accountability Project this month and identified their prominent targets as including Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon. American Family Voices, a progressive group, recently unveiled a new advertising campaign aimed at Airbnb.
Law Firm Moves, News, and Notes
Cozen O'Connor grew its construction law group in Washington, D.C., with the addition of litigators Jesse Keen and Stephen Seeger.
The duo arrived as members from Peckar & Abramson, and their work has involved building projects in the commercial and multifamily construction markets.
A Cozen member in Washington is facing public censure after disciplinary officials determined that he had concealed past disciplinary proceedings that stemmed from 2004 hit-and-run.
Steptoe & Johnson LLP added veteran prosecutor Michael Bromwich this week.
Bromwich remains managing principal of The Bromwich Group, a consulting company he founded. Last year, he left Robbins, Russell, Englert, Orseck, Untereiner & Sauber before representing Christine Blasey Ford, who accused U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct as a teenager.
Former Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Illinois, has reportedly formed a blockchain trade group, named U.S. Blockchain Advocacy Partners.
Kirk held an event in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Thursday to promote the new lobbying effort, according to Politico.
Blank Rome added John Clerici in Washington, D.C., as an of counsel in the government contracts group.
Clerici formerly worked at the now-defunct LeClairRyan.
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