The United States government has sued Google, accusing the tech giant of refusing to give an Army reservist his old job back — or any comparable role — after he returned from a year of military leave. The lawsuit, filed Thursday, centers on Mark Davisson, a former Google key account executive who once managed cloud-services relationships for some of Wall Street's biggest names.
According to the complaint described by the New York Post, the case is a rare instance of the federal government suing a private employer under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994, a law passed to shield the civilian jobs of military personnel called to active duty. Davisson, a US Army reservist, spent two and a half years as a Google key account executive beginning in 2020, handling cloud-services accounts for BlackRock, Bridgewater Associates and the US business of the former Credit Suisse, as srnnews.com reports.
Davisson lived and worked in Manhattan while employed by Google, though he also kept a home in Charlotte, North Carolina, per the same account. The complaint alleges that when he returned from military leave in May 2023, Google refused to let him handle any customer accounts, even though it kept him on at his existing pay and title. That arrangement, the lawsuit claims, effectively froze his career advancement in place.
A Demotion, Then a Firing During Layoffs
Eight months after his return, the complaint says, Google assigned Davisson in January 2024 to a cloud-solutions position that still involved no management of customer accounts. The station's report states that Google fired Davisson seven months after that reassignment, following another stretch of military leave and amid a broader workforce reduction at the company.
The Department of Labor's guidance on USERRA lays out what's known as the escalator principle: returning service members are supposed to be reemployed in the position they would have occupied with reasonable certainty had they stayed continuously employed, with full seniority intact, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The lawsuit against Google argues Davisson never got that escalator treatment.
Who's Bringing the Case
The lawsuit was brought by the civil rights unit of the US Attorney's Office in Manhattan, with backing from Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, described in the reporting as the Trump administration's top civil rights enforcer. It seeks to recoup Davisson's lost wages and benefits along with additional damages, and it also asks the court to require Google to maintain a nondiscriminatory workplace and improve its USERRA training going forward.
A Justice Department statement tied to the case quotes US Attorney Jamie McDonald saying federal law protects returning service members from employer punishment when they come back to civilian work. A Justice Department press-release snippet dates the announcement of the lawsuit to June 29, 2023, while the principal news account places the filing on Thursday, October 29, 2026 — a discrepancy that has not been resolved in available reporting.
Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment, the New York Post reported. The company's substantive response to the allegations has not otherwise been made public.
