It sounds like a lot of senior people at Google don’t understand how privilege works.
I ask a lawyer about the legality of specific acts I am considering. This is privileged conversation.
I send an email to someone else telling them to do something (which may be in violation of one or more laws). I copy legal counsel on the email and "request their input on their subject at hand". This is not privileged communication.
If you're saying that random engineers aren't actually entitled to meet with legal counsel and have a privileged conversation where they privately ask for directed legal advice, that would be surprising news to me.
Sure. But that isn’t what’s going on here. Every regulated industry has blackballed terms. Communicating that to ensure employees don’t accidentally trip up, as well as informing them of the laws they are meant to follow, is totally legitimate.
You and I can’t. Our lawyers can. There shouldn’t be that many people at your firm who can make anticompetitive decisions. Ensure they meet 1:1 with corporate counsel to be advised on what the law is, and how the law responds to certain language. That’s not only kosher, it’s protected by privilege.