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Mr. Kanter left Paul, Weiss in 2020. It has growing ties to companies that have competitive complaints against Big Tech companies. raised conflicts of interest for the firm. While Google is not a Paul, Apple, for example, is a client of Weiss.
Legal experts say that if he joins the Justice Department, the issue of contention will be one of appearances rather than something that would require Mr. Kanter to withdraw himself from the Google case. They say it’s not a disqualifying conflict, because the role of the Department of Justice is as prosecutor and Mr. Kanter doesn’t switch sides, he just becomes an enemy of Google on behalf of the government.
But when the case goes to court, it could be an issue that Google raises. Similarly, legal experts have dismissed Amazon’s request that Ms Khan, an outspoken critic of the e-commerce giant, to withdraw the company from FTC investigations, now as a public relations tactic and perhaps an issue that should be brought up in court later on. he sees.
This is where Mr Kanter would likely have had to withdraw himself, they say, had the Justice Department investigated complaints against Microsoft, which he represented as a corporate defense attorney.
Microsoft, which was the target of a federal antitrust lawsuit in the 1990s, has largely escaped scrutiny of its Big Tech peers until now. But last year Slack Technologies filed a complaint With the European Commission against Microsoft, arguing that the tech giant has illegally linked collaboration software Microsoft Teams to its dominant Office productivity software to try to crush an upstart competitor, Slack.
“I think Kanter’s previous experience would be an advantage, not a disadvantage,” said Charlotte Slaiman, director of competition policy at consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge.
Mr. Kanter first began scrutiny of Google at Microsoft’s behest in 2007 when Google was planning to acquire DoubleClick, an advertising technology company, when it was being reviewed by the Federal Trade Commission. Microsoft and Mr. Kanter argued with DoubleClick that Google would have a powerful tool. He said it needed to turn its strong position in search and search advertising into online display ads and avoid consolidation.
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