Olakunle Ola v. Galaxe Solutions Inc

Opinion

) Case No. 8:24-cv-00345-JWH-DFM ) OLAKUNLE OLA ) SHRULEAFED PROTECTIVE ORDER ) ) Plaintiff, ) Date Action Filed: February 20, 2024 ) Trial Date: None set vs. ) ) GALAXE SOLUTIONS INC a Delaware ) corporation, BRETT KERBEL an individual, ) and ORLINDA D’SOUZA an individual, ) ) Defendants.

1, PURPOSES AND LIMITATIONS Disclosure and discovery activity in this action are likely to involve production of confidential proprietary, or private information for which special protection from public disclosure and from us for any purpose other than prosecuting this litigation may be warranted. Accordingly, the partie hereby stipulate to and petition the court to enter the following Stipulated Protective Order. The partie acknowledge that this Order does not confer blanket protections on all disclosures or responses t discovery and that the protection it affords from public disclosure and use extends only to the limite information or items that are entitled to confidential treatment under the applicable legal principle: The parties further acknowledge, as set forth in Section 12.3, below, that this Stipulated Protectiv Order does not entitle them to file confidential information under seal; Civil Local Rule 79-5 sets fort the procedures that must be followed and the standards that will be applied when a party seek permission from the court to file material under seal. } 2. GOOD CAUSE STATEMENT This single plaintiff discrimination case involves Defendant’s proprietary and confidentiz business information for which special protection from public disclosure and use for any purpose oth« than the prosecution of or defense of this action is warranted. Such proprietary and □□□□□□□□□□□ business information consists of, among other things, information about work Defendar GalaxE.Solutions, LLC (“GalaxE”) has done for certain clients, some of which is protected by nor disclosure agreements; GalaxE’s annual reports; information about employee layoffs, including tt layoff of which Plaintiff was a part; and information about GalaxE’s confidential business practice including its policies and procedures regarding workplace investigations, which are □□□□□□□□ unavailable to the public. This case also involves private information regarding GalaxE’s employees who are not name in this lawsuit, including the results of GalaxE’s investigations into Plaintiffs allegations « harassment and discrimination against specific employees and the finding of those investigation Plaintiff has sought wide-ranging discovery regarding all complaints made by GalaxE employes regarding specific individuals and all workplace investigations conducted by certain individuals; whi GalaxE believes that these requests seek information irrelevant to this case and has □□□□□□□□

Plaintiffs requests, on those (and other) grounds, if the Court eventually orders the production of suc! sensitive personal information regarding third parties, it will need to be protected to avoid violatin; the Constitutional, federal, and common law rights to privacy of those third parties. Furthermore Plaintiffhas alleged that Defendants’ actions have caused him physical and mental harm, and, as such Defendants have asked Plaintiff to produce his medical records. Plaintiff has objected to th unwarranted invasion of his privacy due to the overbroad nature of the requests. If produce eventually based on the court’s order, these medical records should be designated CONFIDENTIAI to protect Plaintiff's privacy. Accordingly, to expedite the flow of information, facilitate the prompt resolution of dispute over the confidentiality of discovery materials, adequately protect information the parties are entitle to keep confidential, ensure that the parties are permitted to reasonably use such material as necessar in preparation for and in the conduct of trial, address the handling of such material at the close c litigation, and serve the ends of justice, a protective order for such information is justified in thi matter. See, e.g., EEOC v. Cal. Psychiatric Transitions, 258 F.R.D. 391, 395 (E.D. Cal. June 18 } 2009) (noting that privacy concerns and the need to protect financial information can be addresse with a protective order). It is the intent of the parties that information will not be designated 2 CONFIDENTIAL for tactical reasons, and that nothing shall be so designated without a good fait belief that it has been maintained in a confidential, non-public manner and that there is good cause ¢ to why it should not be part of the public record in this case. 3. DEFINITIONS 3.1 Challenging Party: a Party or Non-Party that challenges the designation of informatio or items under this Order. 3.2 “CONFIDENTIAL” Information or Items: information (regardless of how it i generated, stored or maintained) or tangible things that qualify for protection under Federal Rule « Civil Procedure 26(c). 3.3 Counsel (without qualifier): Outside Counsel of Record and House Counsel (as well < their support staff). 3.4 Designating Party: a Party or Non-Party that designates information or items that

produces in disclosures or in responses to discovery as “CONFIDENTIAL.” 3.5 Disclosure or Discovery Material: all items or information, regardless of the mediun or manner in which it is generated, stored, or maintained (including, among other things, testimony transcripts, and tangible things), that are produced or generated in disclosures or responses t discovery in this matter. 3.6 Expert: a person with specialized knowledge or experience in a matter pertinent to th litigation who has been retained by a Party or its counsel to serve as an expert witness or as a consultar in this action. 3.7. House Counsel: attorneys who are employees of a party to this action. If the party is company, this shall include attorneys who are employees of any parent, subsidiary, and/or affiliate c that company. House Counsel does not include Outside Counsel of Record or any other outsid counsel. 3.8 Non-Party: any natural person, partnership, corporation, association, or other leg entity not named as a Party to this action. 3.9 Outside Counsel of Record: attorneys who are not employees of a party to this actio butare retained to represent or advise a party to this action and have appeared in this action on beha of that party or are affiliated with a law firm which has appeared on behalf of that party. 3.10 Party: any party to this action, including all of its officers, directors, employee consultants, retained experts, and Outside Counsel of Record (and their support staffs). 3.11 Producing Party: a Party or Non-Party that produces Disclosure or Discovery Materi: in this action. 3.12 Professional Vendors: persons or entities that provide litigation support services (e.g photocopying, videotaping, translating, preparing exhibits or demonstrations, and organizing, storin or retrieving data in any form or medium) and their employees and subcontractors. 3.13 Protected Material: any Disclosure or Discovery Material that is designated < “CONFIDENTIAL.” 3.14 Receiving Party: a Party that receives Disclosure or Discovery Material from Producing Party.

4. SCOPE The protections conferred by this Stipulation and Order cover not only Protected Material (as defined above), but also (1) any information copied or extracted from Protected Material; (2) all copies, excerpts, summaries, or compilations of Protected Material; and (3) any testimony, conversations, or presentations by Parties or their Counsel that might reveal Protected Material. However, the protections conferred by this Stipulation and Order do not cover the following information: (a) any information that is in the public domain at the time of disclosure to a Receiving Party or becomes part of the public domain after its disclosure to a Receiving Party as a result of publication not involving a violation of this Order, including becoming part of the public record through trial or otherwise; and (b) any information known to the Receiving Party prior to the disclosure or obtained by the Receiving Party after the disclosure from a source who obtained the information lawfully and under no obligation of confidentiality to the Designating Party. Any use of Protected Material at trial shall be governed by a separate agreement or order. 5. DURATION Even after final disposition of this litigation, the confidentiality obligations imposed by th: Order shall remain in effect until a Designating Party agrees otherwise in writing or a court ord otherwise directs. Final disposition shall be deemed to be the later of (1) dismissal of all claims an defenses in this action, with or without prejudice; and (2) final judgment herein after the completio and exhaustion of all appeals, rehearings, remands, trials, or reviews of this action, including the tir limits for filing any motions or applications for extension of time pursuant to applicable law. 6. DESIGNATING PROTECTED MATERIAL 6.1 Exercise of Restraint and Care in Designating Material for Protection. Each Party « Non-Party that designates information or items for protection under this Order must take care to lim any such designation to specific material that qualifies under the appropriate standards. TI Designating Party must designate for protection only those parts of material, documents, items, or or or written communications that qualify — so that other portions of the material, documents, items, « communications for which protection is not warranted are not swept unjustifiably within the ambit « this Order.

Mass, indiscriminate, or routinized designations are prohibited. Designations that are show to be clearly unjustified or that have been made for an improper purpose (e.g., to unnecessaril encumber or delay the case development process or to impose unnecessary expenses and burdens o other parties) expose the Designating Party to sanctions. If it comes to a Designating Party’s attention that information or items that it designated fc protection do not qualify for protection, that Designating Party must promptly notify all other Partie that it is withdrawing the mistaken designation. 6.2 Manner and Timing of Designations. Except as otherwise provided in this Order (sec e.g., section 6.2(b) below), or as otherwise stipulated or ordered, Disclosure of Discovery □□□□□□□ || that qualifies for protection under this Order must be clearly so designated before the material | disclosed or produced as follows: (a) For information in documentary form (e.g., paper or electronic documents, bt excluding transcripts of depositions or other pretrial or trial proceedings), that the Producing Part ) affix the legend “CONFIDENTIAL” to each page that contains protected material. If only a portio or portions of the material on a page qualifies for protection, the Producing Party also must clearl identify the protected portion(s) (e.g., by making appropriate markings in the margins). (b) For testimony given in deposition or in other pretrial or trial proceedings, that th Designating Party either (1) identify on the record, before the close of the deposition, hearing, or othe proceeding, all protected testimony, or (2) designate a portion or portions of the deposition transcri as confidential no later than thirty (30) days after receiving the deposition transcript. Each depositic shall be deemed confidential for thirty (30) days after receipt of the deposition transcript to give th parties an opportunity to designate pages and lines of the deposition transcript as Confidential. (c) Inadvertent Failures to Designate. If timely corrected, an inadvertent failure 1 designate qualified information or items does not, standing alone, waive the Designating Party’s rig] to secure protection under this Order for such material. Upon timely correction of a designation, tl Receiving Party must make reasonable efforts to assure that the material is treated in accordance wit the provisions of this Order. 7. CHALLENGING CONFIDENTIALITY DESIGNATIONS

71 Timing of Challenges. Any Party or Non-Party may challenge a designation c confidentiality within 30 days of the designation. 7.2 Meet and Confer. The Challenging Party shall initiate the dispute resolution process b providing written notice of each designation it is challenging and describing the basis for eac challenge. To avoid ambiguity as to whether a challenge has been made, the written notice must recit that the challenge to confidentiality is being made in accordance with this specific paragraph of th Protective Order. The parties shall attempt to resolve each challenge in good faith and must begin th process by conferring directly (in voice to voice dialogue; other forms of communication are nc sufficient) within 14 days of the date of service of notice. In conferring, the Challenging Party mu: explain the basis for its belief that the confidentiality designation was not proper and must give th Designating Party an opportunity to review the designated material, to reconsider the circumstance: and, if no change in designation is offered, to explain the basis for the chosen designation. □ Challenging Party may proceed to the next stage of the challenge process only if it has engaged in thi meet and confer process first or establishes that the Designating Party is unwilling to participate in th meet and confer process in a timely manner. 7.3 Judicial Intervention. If the Parties cannot resolve a challenge without cou } intervention, the Challenging Party shall file and serve a motion challenging the confidentialit } designation under Civil Local Rule 7 (and in compliance with Civil Local Rule 79-5, if applicable ) within 21 days of the initial notice of challenge or within 14 days of the parties agreeing that the me and confer process will not resolve their dispute, whichever is later. Each such motion must t accompanied by a competent declaration affirming that the Challenging Party has complied with th {| meet and confer requirements imposed in the preceding paragraph. Failure by the Challenging Part to make such a motion including the required declaration within 21 days (or 14 days, if applicabl. shall automatically waive any challenge to the confidentiality designation for each challenge designation. Frivolous challenges, and those made for an improper purpose (e.g., to harass or impose unnecesSar expenses and burdens on other parties) may expose the Challenging Party to sanctions, including th

Designating Party’s attorneys’ fees and costs. Unless and until the Court determines that th challenged material is not confidential, all parties shall continue to afford the material in question th level of protection to which it is entitled under the Producing Party’s designation until the court rule on the challenge. 8. ACCESS TO AND USE OF PROTECTED MATERIAL 8.1 Basic Principles. A Receiving Party may use Protected Material that is □□□□□□□□□ produced by another Party or by a Non-Party in connection with this case only for prosecuting defending, or attempting to settle this litigation. Such Protected Material may be disclosed only to th categories of persons and under the conditions described in this Order. When the litigation has bee terminated, a Receiving Party must comply with the provisions of section 14 below (FINA DISPOSITION). Protected Material must be stored and maintained by a Receiving Party at a location and in secure manner that ensures that access is limited to the persons authorized under this Order. 8.2 Disclosure of “CONFIDENTIAL” Information or Items. Unless otherwise ordered b the court or permitted in writing by the Designating Party, a Receiving Party may disclose an j| information or item designated “CONFIDENTIAL” only to: (a) the Receiving Party’s Outside Counsel of Record in this action, as well as employee of said Outside Counsel of Record to whom it is reasonably necessary to disclose the information fc this litigation; (b) House Counsel of the Receiving Party; (c) the officers, directors, and employees (excluding House Counsel) of the Receivin Party to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this litigation; (d) Experts (as defined in this Order) of the Receiving Party to whom disclosure - reasonably necessary for this litigation and who have signed the “Acknowledgment and Agreement 1 Be Bound” (Exhibit A); (e) the court and its personnel; (f) court reporters and their staff, (g) professional jury or trial consultants, mock jurors, and Professional Vendors to whot

disclosure is reasonably necessary for this litigation and who have signed the “Acknowledgment an } Agreement to Be Bound” (Exhibit A); (h) during their depositions, witnesses in the action to whom disclosure is reasonabl necessary and who are either a recipient or an author of the document, unless otherwise agreed by th Designating Party or ordered by the court. Pages of transcribed deposition testimony or exhibits t depositions that reveal Protected Material must be separately bound by the court reporter and may nc be disclosed to anyone except as permitted under this Stipulated Protective Order. (1) the author or recipient of a document containing the information or a custodian or oth« ] person who otherwise possessed or knew the information. 9. PROTECTED MATERIAL SUBPOENAED OR ORDERED PRODUCED IN OTHE! } LITIGATION If a Party is served with a subpoena or a court order issued in a different litigation that compe! disclosure of any information or items designated in this action as “CONFIDENTIAL,” that Part must: (a) promptly notify in writing the Designating Party. Such notification shall include a cop of the subpoena or court order; (b) promptly notify in writing the party who caused the subpoena or order to issue in th other litigation that some or all of the material covered by the subpoena or order is subject to thi Protective Order. Such notification shall include a copy of this Stipulated Protective Order; and (c) cooperate with respect to all reasonable procedures sought to be pursued by th Designating Party whose Protected Material may be affected. If the Designating Party timely seeks a protective order, the Party served with the subpoena c court order shall not produce any information designated in this action as “CONFIDENTIAL” befor a determination by the court from which the subpoena or order issued, unless the Party has obtaine the Designating Party’s permission. The Designating Party shall bear the burden and expense seeking protection in that court of its confidential material — and nothing in these provisions should b construed as authorizing or encouraging a Receiving Party in this action to disobey a lawful directiv from another court.

10. A NON-PARTY’S PROTECTED MATERIAL SOUGHT TO BE PRODUCED IN THI LITIGATION (a) The terms of this Order are applicable to information produced by a Non-Party in thi action and designated as “CONFIDENTIAL.” Such information produced by Non-Parties i connection with this litigation is protected by the remedies and relief provided by this Order. Nothin in these provisions should be construed as prohibiting a Non-Party from seeking additions {| protections. (b) In the event that a Party is required, by a valid discovery request, to produce a Nor Party’s confidential information in its possession, and the Party is subject to an agreement with th ) Non-Party not to produce the Non-Party’s confidential information, then the Party shall: (1) promptly notify in writing the Requesting Party and the Non-Party that some or a of the information requested is subject to a confidentiality agreement with a Non-Party; (2) promptly provide the Non-Party with a copy of the Stipulated Protective Order i ] this litigation, the relevant discovery request(s), and a reasonably specific description of th information requested; and (3) make the information requested available for inspection by the Non-Party. (c) If the Non-Party fails to object or seek a protective order from this court within 14 day of receiving the notice and accompanying information, the Receiving Party may produce the Nor ) Party’s confidential information responsive to the discovery request. If the Non-Party timely seeks protective order, the Receiving Party shall not produce any information in its possession or □□□□□□ that is subject to the confidentiality agreement with the Non-Party before a determination by the cour Absent a court order to the contrary, the Non-Party shall bear the burden and expense of seekin protection in this court of its Protected Material. } 11. UNAUTHORIZED DISCLOSURE OF PROTECTED MATERIAL If a Receiving Party learns that, by inadvertence or otherwise, it has disclosed Protecte Material to any person or in any circumstance not authorized under this Stipulated Protective Orde: the Receiving Party must immediately (a) notify in writing the Designating Party of the unauthorize disclosures, (b) use its best efforts to retrieve all unauthorized copies of the Protected Material, ( 10

inform the person or persons to whom unauthorized disclosures were made of all the terms of thi Order, and (d) request such person or persons to execute the “Acknowledgment and Agreement to B Bound” that is attached hereto as Exhibit A. 12. JINADVERTENT PRODUCTION OF PRIVILEGED OR OTHERWISE PROTECTEI MATERIAL Pursuant to Fed. R. Evid. 502(d), the production of privileged or work product protecte documents or communications, electronically stored information (“ESI”) or information, whethe inadvertent or otherwise, shall not constitute a waiver of the privilege or protection from discovery i this case or in any other federal or state proceeding. This Order shall be interpreted to provide th } maximum protection allowed by Federal Rule of Evidence 502(d). The Parties expressly agree thi neither 502(b) nor the common law regarding waiver of privilege through production shall have an application to any Party’s claim of production of privileged documents, ESI, or information. Nothin contained herein is intended to or shall serve to limit a party’s right to conduct a review of document: ESI, or information (including metadata) for relevance, responsiveness and/or segregation privileged and/or protected information before production. Any Party that discloses or produces document or ESI that it considers privileged or otherwise protected from discovery will give writte notice to the Receiving Party, identifying the document or ESI in question, the asserted □□□□□□□□□ protection, and the grounds therefor, within 7 calendar days of its discovery of the disclosure ¢ production of the privileged or otherwise protected document. Upon receipt of notice of the assertio of privilege or protection over produced documents or ESI, the receiving party will: (a) to □□□□□□□ extent it contests the assertion of privilege or protection, so notify the producing party within calendar days, and maintain the contested documents and ESI in confidence pending resolution of tk contest by the parties or the Court; and (b) to whatever extent the receiving party does not contest th assertion of privilege or protection, then within 7 calendar days the receiving party shall (i) return an certify in writing to the producing party that it has returned the applicable document(s) and/or ES and destroyed all copies of the same, and has made reasonably diligent efforts to identify and (ii) locat and destroy each copy thereof and all information derived therefrom. In the event of a conteste assertion of privilege or protection over produced documents that cannot be resolved amicably afte 11

meeting and conferring in good faith, either party may bring the contest to the attention of the Cow by motion. 13. MISCELLANEOUS 13.1 Right to Further Relief. Nothing in this Order abridges the right of any person to see its modification by the court in the future. 13.2 Right to Assert Other Objections. By stipulating to the entry of this Protective Orde no Party waives any right it otherwise would have to object to disclosing or producing any informatio or item on any ground not addressed in this Stipulated Protective Order. Similarly, no Party waive any right to object on any ground to use in evidence of any of the material covered by this Protectiv Order. 13.3. Filing Protected Material. Without written permission from the Designating Party or court order secured after appropriate notice to all interested persons, a Party may not file in the publi } record in this action any Protected Material. A Party that seeks to file under seal any Protected Materi: } must comply with Civil Local Rule 79-5. Protected Material may only be filed under seal pursuant t acourt order authorizing the sealing of the specific Protected Material at issue. Pursuant to Civil } Rule 79-5, a sealing order will issue only upon a request establishing that the Protected □□□□□□□□ issue is privileged, protectable as a trade secret, or otherwise entitled to protection under the law. If || Receiving Party's request to file Protected Material under seal pursuant to Civil Local Rule 79-5 | denied by the court, then the Receiving Party may file the information in the public record pursuant 1 } Civil Local Rule 79-5 unless otherwise instructed by the court. A Party that fails to comply with th paragraph and publicly files Protected Material in this action without permission from the Designatin Party or a court order shall be subject to sanctions. 14. FINAL DISPOSITION Within 60 days after the final disposition of this action, as defined in paragraph 4, eac Receiving Party must return all Protected Material to the Producing Party or destroy such material. A used in this subdivision, “all Protected Material” includes all copies, abstracts, compilation: summaries, and any other format reproducing or capturing any of the Protected Material. Whether th Protected Material is returned or destroyed, the Receiving Party must submit a written certification t 12

the Producing Party (and, if not the same person or entity, to the Designating Party) by the 60 da deadline that (1) identifies (by category, where appropriate) all the Protected Material that wa returned or destroyed and (2) affirms that the Receiving Party has not retained any copies, abstracts compilations, summaries or any other format reproducing or capturing any of the Protected Materia. Notwithstanding this provision, Counsel are entitled to retain an archival copy of all pleadings, motio papers, trial, deposition, and hearing transcripts, legal memoranda, correspondence, deposition an trial exhibits, expert reports, attorney work product, and consultant and expert work product, even : such materials contain Protected Material. Any such archival copies that contain or constitut Protected Material remain subject to this Protective Order as set forth in Section 5 (DURATION). paren: eb.)2, 20257 _ i4 United Sta strict/Magistrate Judge

I, [print or type full name], of [print or typ full address], declare under penalty of perjury that I have read in its entirety and understand th Stipulated Protective Order that was issued by the United States District Court for the Northern Distric of California on [date] in the case of Ola v. GalaxE Solutions, Inc., No. 8:24-c\ 00345-JWH-DFM. I agree to comply with and to be bound by all the terms of this Stipulated Protectiv Order and I understand and acknowledge that failure to so comply could expose me to sanctions an punishment in the nature of contempt. I solemnly promise that I will not disclose in any manner an information or item that is subject to this Stipulated Protective Order to any person or entity except 1 1] strict compliance with the provisions of this Order. I further agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the Northern Distri of California for the purpose of enforcing the terms of this Stipulated Protective Order, even if suc } enforcement proceedings occur after termination of this action. I hereby appoint [print or type full name] « [print or type full address and telephone number] < my California agent for service of process in connection with this action or any proceedings related 1 enforcement of this Stipulated Protective Order. Date: County and State where sworn and signed: Printed name: Signature: 14