# The Texas Lawyer Who Beat Meta and Google. and Said Zuckerberg Was 'Rattled' on the Stand

_Saturday, March 28, 2026 at 9:43 PM EDT · Power · Latest · Tier 1 — Major_

![The Texas Lawyer Who Beat Meta and Google. and Said Zuckerberg Was 'Rattled' on the Stand — Primary](https://images.wsj.net/im-67828771/social)

The Wall Street Journal profiles Mark Lanier, the Texas trial lawyer and part-time pastor who won the landmark Los Angeles social media lawsuit against Meta and Google, in a case that found the platforms liable for harms to children.

Lanier told the Journal that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared rattled during his testimony. The verdict is one of the most significant legal defeats for a major tech platform in recent years, and Lanier's win has drawn intense attention from plaintiff attorneys across the country who are building similar cases.

The profile captures how a single tenacious litigator outside the tech industry's usual legal circles managed to land what may become a precedent-setting blow against platform liability protections that Big Tech has relied on for decades.

## Sources

- [Wall Street Journal via Techmeme](http://www.techmeme.com/260328/p12#a260328p12)

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Canonical: https://techandbusiness.org/newswire/newsDraft-hb93-1-09bc95e6
Retrieved: 2026-08-11T15:55:17.885Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)