Uber Techs., Inc. v. Google LLC

Anthony Levandowski and Lior Ron are former Google LLC (Google) employees who started the self-driving vehicle company Ottomotto LLC (Otto). Google considered Otto a competitor to its own self-driving vehicle project. After Otto was acquired by Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), Google initiated arbitration proceedings against its two former employees for allegedly breaching their employment contracts, breaching their fiduciary duties, fraud, tortious interference with Google's employment relationships, and other claims. Google sought discovery from Uber, a nonparty to the arbitration, related to pre-acquisition due diligence done at the request of Uber and Otto's outside counsel by Stroz Friedberg LLC. Over Uber's objections, the arbitration panel determined the due diligence documents *770 were not protected by either the attorney client privilege or the attorney work product doctrine and ordered them produced. Uber initiated a special proceeding in superior court seeking to vacate the arbitration panel's discovery order and prevailed.

Google now appeals from the superior court's order. We deny Uber's motion to dismiss the appeal because the superior court's order determined all…