AUSTIN – Attorney Zina Bash has left the Texas Attorney General’s Office and joined Keller Lenkner – a law firm the state recently hired to represent it in an antitrust lawsuit against Google.
Back in December, Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Texas was leading a multistate coalition in litigation against Google, alleging the company monopolized products and services used by advertisers and publishers in online-display advertising.
To help Texas handle the potentially lucrative litigation, Paxton’s office hired two notable law firms, Keller Lenkner, a Chicago firm, and The Lanier Law Firm in Houston.
The firms signed contingency fees contracts with the state, which The Record has obtained.
Keller Lenkner’s contract shows that attorneys working on the case stand to make as much as $3,780 per hour.
On Feb. 3, Keller Lenkner announced Bash had left the AG’s Office to join the firm as a partner.
“Keller Lenkner currently represents States both in the fight against Purdue Pharma related to the opioid epidemic and in the multistate antitrust case against Google related to online-display advertising,” the firm’s announcement states. “Prior to joining Keller Lenkner, Bash was Senior Counsel to the Attorney General of Texas, where she helped manage legal policy and strategy for one of the largest state attorney general offices in the country.
“In her role, Bash advised the Attorney General on whether and where to initiate affirmative litigation and participated in matters spanning constitutional law, consumer protection, and environmental law.”
Section 572.069 of the Texas Government Code states that a former state employee who participated on behalf of a state agency in a procurement or contract negotiation of a person may not accept employment from that person before the second anniversary of the date the contract is signed or the procurement is terminated or withdrawn.
The Record reached out to Keller Lenkner and asked whether Bash participated in the procurement process and whether she would be working on the Google case for the law firm.
Travis Lenkner, a managing partner at the firm, issued the following response: “The Office of the Attorney General hired Keller Lenkner without any involvement from Zina Bash and before we ever spoke with Zina about joining our firm. And Zina did not work on the Google case while serving in that office. After Zina announced her departure—and after we had already been retained—we reached out to her because she is an accomplished lawyer and a wonderful person whom several of us have known for more than a decade. Zina then consulted the career ethics officer in the Office of the Attorney General, who confirmed that no legal or ethical bar prevented her from becoming a partner here. We are thrilled to have Zina as part of our growing team.”
Paxton’s office did not respond to a request for comment.