Koumoulis v. Independent Financial Marketing Group, Inc.

29 F. Supp. 3d 142, 2014 WL 223173, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7695
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedJanuary 21, 2014
DocketNo. 10-CV-0887 (PKC)(VMS)
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 29 F. Supp. 3d 142 (Koumoulis v. Independent Financial Marketing Group, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Koumoulis v. Independent Financial Marketing Group, Inc., 29 F. Supp. 3d 142, 2014 WL 223173, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7695 (E.D.N.Y. 2014).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM & ORDER

PAMELA K. CHEN, District Judge:

Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (“FRCP”) 72(a), Defendants LPL financial Corporation (“LPL”), Independent Financial Market Group, Inc., and Astoria Federal Savings and Loan Association (collectively, “Defendants”) have submitted objections to the Memorandum and Order issued by Magistrate Judge Vera M. Scan-lon on November 1, 2013, 295 F.R.D. 28 (2013) (“Order”), regarding (1) Plaintiffs’ motion to compel Defendants to produce documents, withheld as privileged, that contained communications between Defendants and their outside counsel concerning internal investigations of Plaintiff Tasso Koumoulis’s discrimination and retaliation complaints; (2) Plaintiffs’ motion to compel the deposition of Defendants’ counsel regarding these internal investigations; (3) and Defendants’ motion to compel Plaintiffs to produce a privilege log. (Dkt. Nos. 55 (“Def. Obj.”) and 50 (Order).)

In the Order, Judge Scanlon found that the majority of information contained in the documents submitted for in camera review (“Submitted Documents”) was not covered by either the attorney-client or work-product privilege, and ordered the production of the Submitted Documents with certain redactions, as well as the remainder of the withheld documents to the extent warranted by the Order. (Order at 49-50; Dkt. No. 49 (Submitted Documents with redactions).) Judge Scanlon also ordered Defendants’ outside counsel, Ann Bradley, Esq., to be made available for deposition by Plaintiffs. (Order at 49-50.) Lastly, Judge Scanlon ordered both parties to submit amended privilege logs that fully comport with FRCP 26, but permitted Plaintiffs to satisfy this requirement by submitting a declaration in lieu of a privilege log. Id.

In challenging the Order, Defendants contend that Judge Scanlon misapplied the law relating to privilege and discovery, and made clearly erroneous factual findings. (Def. Obj. at 3-4.) Defendants ask the Court to “set aside or modify the Magistrate’s determination that Defendants produce documents from the privilege log and make Ms. Bradley available for deposition.” Id. at 50. Defendants also ask that Plaintiffs be required to produce a privilege log, instead of a declaration. Id. Defendants further seek to have the Court, in ruling on their objections, consider supplemental evidence that was not before Judge Scanlon at the time she rendered her decision. Id. at 43-45.

[145]*145For the reasons set forth below, Defendants’ application to modify or set aside the Order is DENIED, in its entirety.

I. Standard of Review

As Defendants acknowledge, a magistrate judge’s ruling on non-dispositive pretrial matters should not be disturbed by the district judge absent a determination that such findings were “clearly erroneous or contrary to law.” 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(A); (see Def. Obj. at 5.) Pursuant to this highly deferential standard of review, magistrate judges are thus afforded broad discretion in resolving discovery disputes, and reversal is appropriate only if that discretion is abused. See Conway v. Icahn, 16 F.3d 504, 510 (2d Cir.1994). “A court abuses its discretion when its decision rests on an error of law or on a clearly erroneous factual finding, or when its decision — though not necessarily the product of a legal error or a clearly erroneous factual finding — cannot be located within the range of permissible decisions.” Arista Records, LLC v. Doe 3, 604 F.3d 110, 117 (2d Cir.2010). “[A] finding is ‘clearly erroneous’ when although there is evidence to support it, the reviewing court on the entire evidence is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.” CFTC v. Standard Forex, 882 F.Supp. 40, 42 (E.D.N.Y.1995). Thus, “a party seeking to overturn a discovery order bears a heavy burden.” AP Links, LLC v. Global Golf, Inc., 08-CV-1730, 2011 WL 888261, at *4 (E.D.N.Y. Mar. 14, 2011).

II. Defendants Have Failed to Demonstrate that the Order was Clearly Erroneous

In their objections, Defendants do not challenge the legal standards applied by Judge Scanlon on the privilege issue; rather, they challenge her application of those standards. (Def. Obj. at 6.) Defendants assert that Judge Scanlon’s finding that the communications between Defendants and their outside counsel predominantly involved business, not legal, advice, and were therefore not protected by the attorney-client or work-product privilege, was clearly erroneous. Id. at 3. Defendants also argue that Judge Scanlon erroneously ruled that any privilege was waived by Defendants’ assertion of a Faragher/El-lerth defense because Defendants’ outside counsel “had no role in the investigation other than to render legal advice for the purpose of preventing retaliation claims and mounting a legal defense,” and “Plaintiffs have no valid need for this information.” Id.

However, a review of the Submitted Documents, as well as the deposition testimony offered by Defendants, does not support these contentions. Rather, as Judge Scanlon concluded after carefully reviewing the Submitted Documents’ and related evidence, almost all of the information contained in the Submitted Documents relates to business advice provided by outside counsel to Defendants’ human resources personnel or the factual record of Defendants’ internal investigation, and was not provided in anticipation of. litigation. (Order at 43^14.) This information, therefore, is not protected by attorney-client or work-product privilege. In re Cnty. of Erie, 473 F.3d 413, 419 (2d Cir.2007); see also TVT Records v. Island Def Jam Music Grp., 214 F.R.D. 143, 144 (S.D.N.Y.2003) (“[O]nly those communications related to legal, as contrasted with business, advice are protected.”) (internal quotation marks omitted). Furthermore, as Judge Scanlon found, even if the disputed materials were covered by a privilege, that privilege was waived by Defendants’ assertion of an affirmative defense based on the reasonableness of Defendants’ internal investigation and efforts to correct the alleg[146]*146edly discriminatory behavior. Accordingly, based on the entire record before it, the Court is not “left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake' has been committed,” CFTC, 882 F.Supp. at 42, and affirms the Order in its entirety.

A. Attorney-Client Privilege

In conducting her analysis, Judge Scanlon was guided by the well-established principle that “[i]n the context of the attorney-client privilege, ‘legal advice involves the interpretation and application of legal principles to guide future conduct or to assess past conduct’.... Obtaining or providing such legal advice must be the “ ‘predominant purpose’” of a privileged communication.” Id. (quoting In re Cnty. of Erie, 473 F.3d at 419; Favors v. Cuomo, 285 F.R.D. 187, 198 (E.D.N.Y.2012) (quoting In re Cnty. of Erie, 473 F.3d at 420)).

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29 F. Supp. 3d 142, 2014 WL 223173, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7695, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/koumoulis-v-independent-financial-marketing-group-inc-nyed-2014.