United States v. Nosal

291 F.R.D. 403, 2013 WL 782003, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28582
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedMarch 1, 2013
DocketNo. 08-cr-00237 EMC (NC)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 291 F.R.D. 403 (United States v. Nosal) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Nosal, 291 F.R.D. 403, 2013 WL 782003, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28582 (N.D. Cal. 2013).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART RULE 17(C) SUBPOENA TO THIRD PARTY KORN/FERRY

NATHANAEL M. COUSINS, United States Magistrate Judge.

Defendant David Nosal moves for a subpoena duces tecum under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 17(c). Nosal is charged with conspiracy and theft of trade secrets [406]*406from his former employer, Korn/Ferry International. The issues are (1) whether the documents Nosal seeks to subpoena are material to his defense and (2) whether Korn/Ferry would be overly oppressed by producing them. After considering the parties’ briefs and a hearing on the matter, the Court finds that the bulk of the information Nosal seeks is material to his defense and its production would not overly burden Korn/Ferry; however, many requests are du-plicative, some are moot, and one is overly broad. Accordingly, the Court GRANTS IN PART AND DENIES IN PART Nosal’s subpoena.

I. BACKGROUND

Nosal is a former executive at Korn/Ferry, an executive search and placement company with offices in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, and San Francisco. Korn/Ferry uses a database called Searcher, which contains information about executive candidates, as well as the results of past searches for client-companies. In October 2004, Nosal left Korn/Fer-ry. Under the terms of his departure, however, Nosal would complete sixteen additional searches for client-companies seeking executives. In exchange, Korn/Ferry would pay Nosal $25,000 per month and two, lump-sum payouts, worth at least $1 million. A further condition of this arrangement precluded No-sal from starting his own executive placement company.

In March of 2005, Korn/Ferry received an anonymous email alleging that Nosal was violating the terms of the noncompete agreement. Korn/Ferry hired its own investigators and began fracking the logins and use of Searcher by Mark Jacobson, Jacqueline Froehlieh-L’Heureaux, and Becky Christian, Nosal’s executive assistant and romantic interest. Korn/Ferry then turned to the U.S. Attorneys’ office, which charged Nosal with conspiracy and theft of trade secrets.

Trial was set for February 9, 2010 in front of Judge Patel. In January 2010, Nosal filed a motion for a subpoena duces tecum under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 17(c). He made fourteen requests for documents from Korn/Ferry, which he alleged were essential to his defense. The government sought interlocutory review of Judge Patel’s decision to dismiss several of the charges against Nosal, and the motion for the subpoena was not resolved.

The government’s appeal was unsuccessful, and the proceedings against Nosal have recommenced. He therefore renews his motion for the subpoena under Rule 17(c). He renews nine of the original fourteen requests and makes eleven new requests. In support of his subpoena, Nosal resubmits his 2010 motion and the accompanying declaration filed by his counsel. Dkt. No. 275. Judge Chen referred Nosal’s motion, and all discovery in this case, to this Court. Dkt. No. 277.

A. Korn/Ferry’s Opposition and Sur-reply

Korn/Ferry opposes Nosal’s motion and asserts that he fails to make a showing that the evidence he seeks is limited to specific materials, relevant to his defense, and unavailable by other means, as required by United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 94 S.Ct. 3090, 41 L.Ed.2d 1039 (1974). It claims that Nosal’s requests are not specific because they are too broad, seeking “any and all” materials; that Nosal’s requests are not relevant because his theory of the case is inconsistent with trade secret law; and that No-sal’s requests seek inadmissible documents, either because they constitute hearsay, or because he intends to use them for impeachment.

Korn/Ferry also argues that the information is available by other means because it already responded to a trial subpoena served upon it by the government in 2010 and its responsive discovery was in turn given to Nosal by the government. It claims that it produced much of what Nosal seeks in response to discovery requests propounded during civil arbitration in 2007. Several other requests should be quashed, according to Korn/Ferry, simply because they ask for information that forms the basis of charges in the superseding indictment and thus should be directed to the government.

B. The Government’s Opposition and Sur-reply

The government also opposes Nosal’s motion arguing that it provided to Nosal nearly all of the information he requests in 2010. It points out that many of the materials Nosal [407]*407seeks are not in Korn/Ferry’s possession, or are based on the superseding indictment, and thus Nosal’s requests should be directed at the government. In addition, the government asserts that Nosal has failed to make, a showing that the evidence he seeks is limited to specific materials, relevant to his defense, and unavailable by other means, as required by Nixon.

C. Nosal’s Consolidated Response

Nosal addresses his eleven new requests in his consolidated response to the government’s and Korn/Ferry’s oppositions and asserts that the information is relevant to the preparation of his defense. He acknowledges that “[i]t is possible that certain of the documents that [he] seeks have been previously provided in criminal or civil discovery,” but states that the parties planned to meet and confer in order to sort out if any of the materials sought by Nosal’s subpoena were in fact already produced, either by the government in 2010 or by Korn/Ferry in connection with the civil arbitration in 2007. Dkt. No. 292 at 2.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

Under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 17(c), a party may subpoena a witness to compel the production of books, paper, documents, data, or other objects. Such a subpoena may be quashed if the production of the requested materials would be “unreasonable or oppressive, but not otherwise.” United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 689, 94 S.Ct. 3090, 41 L.Ed.2d 1039 (1974). Rule 17 does not “provide an additional means of discovery”; rather “its chief innovation was to expedite the trial by providing a time and place before trial for the inspection of the subpoenaed materials.” Bowman Dairy Co. v. United States, 341 U.S. 214, 220, 71 S.Ct. 675, 95 L.Ed. 879 (1951).

In Nixon, the Supreme Court held that any request under Rule 17 must identify specific materials, which are relevant and admissible. 418 U.S. at 700, 94 S.Ct. 3090. In addition, the moving party must show that the materials sought are “not otherwise procurable reasonably in advance of trial by exercise of due diligence,” “that the party cannot properly prepare for trial without such production and inspection in advance of trial and that the failure to obtain such inspection may tend unreasonably to delay the trial,” “and that the application is made in good faith and is not intended as a general fishing expedition.” Id. at 699-700, 94 S.Ct.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Young v. Bowen
W.D. Oklahoma, 2021

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
291 F.R.D. 403, 2013 WL 782003, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28582, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-nosal-cand-2013.