LEGG, LLC v. Unni

Filing 53

ORDER RESETTING CERTAIN DATES AND EXTEND DISCOVERY re 51 Stipulation filed by Sanjay Unni Dispositive Motion Hearing reset for 5/15/2014 01:30 PM in Courtroom 5, 17th Floor, San Francisco before Hon. Edward M. Chen.. Signed by Judge Edward M. Chen on 2/21/14. (bpf, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 2/21/2014)

LLP

HAMPTONHOLLEY

2101 East Coast Highway, Suite 260
Corona del Mar, California 92625

1 Michael S. Ward #178648
Mark A. Delgado #215618
2 FITZGERALD ABBOTT & BEARDSLEY LLP
1221 Broadway, 21st Floor
3 Oakland, California 94612
Telephone: [phone]
4 Facsimile: [phone]
Email:
[e-mail]
5
[e-mail]
6 EDWARD NOONAN (Admitted Pro Hac Vice)
MARK A. JOHNSTON (Admitted Pro Hac Vice)
7 SARAH SHYR (Admitted Pro Hac Vice)
ECKERT SEAMANS CHERIN & MELLOTT, LLC
8 1717 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Suite 1200
Washington, DC 20006
9 Telephone: [phone]
Facsimile: [phone]
10 Email:
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
11
[e-mail]
12 Attorneys for PLAINTIFF AND
COUNTERDEFENDANT LECG, LLC
13
14 DEAN A. DICKIE (Admitted Pro Hac Vice)
E-mail: [e-mail]
15 KATHLEEN E. KOPPENHOEFER (Admitted Pro Hac Vice)
E-mail: [e-mail]
16 MILLER, CANFIELD, PADDOCK AND STONE, P.L.C.
225 West Washington Street, Suite 2600
17 Chicago, IL 60606
Telephone: [phone]
18 Facsimile: 312.460.4288
[LEAD COUNSEL]
19
GEORGE L. HAMPTON IV (State Bar No. 144433)
20 E-mail: [e-mail]
COLIN C. HOLLEY (State Bar No. 191999)
21 E-mail: [e-mail]
HAMPTONHOLLEY LLP
22 2101 East Coast Highway, Suite 260
Corona del Mar, CA 92625
23 Telephone: [phone]
Facsimile: 949.718.4580
24 [LOCAL COUNSEL]
25 Attorneys for Defendant/Counterclaimant
SANJAY UNNI
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Case No. CV 13-00639-EMC
STIPULATION TO RESET DISCOVERY DATES

1

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

2

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

3

SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION

4 LECG, LLC, a California limited
liability company,
5
Plaintiff,
6
v.
7
SANJAY UNNI, an Individual,
8
Defendant.
9

Case No. CV 13-00639 EMC
STIPULATION TO RESET
CERTAIN DATES AND EXTEND
DISCOVERY ; ORDER

LLP

HAMPTONHOLLEY

2101 East Coast Highway, Suite 260
Corona del Mar, California 92625

10 SANJAY UNNI, an Individual,
Counterclaimant,

11
12

v.

13 LECG, LLC, a California limited
liability company,
14
Counterdefendant.
15
16
17
18
19
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22
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24
25
26

Pursuant to Judge Chen’s Standing Order and L.R. 6, the parties hereby file a
Stipulation to (1) reset the deadline for initial expert disclosures from February 6 to
March 10, (2) extend the non-expert discovery cut-off from February 14 to
March 10; (3) extend the date for rebuttal reports from February 27, 2014 to
March 31, 2014; (4) extend the date for closure of expert discovery from March 20,
2014 to April 11, 2014; and (5) extend the date for a hearing on dispositive motions
from May 1, 2014 to May 19, 2014. The parties do not anticipate that the trial date
will be impacted. The purpose of this stipulation is to complete very limited
discovery– two fact depositions – the need for which has just come to light, and to
provide a new date to disclose expert opinions in light of information learned after
the expert disclosure cut-off date.

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Case No. CV 13-00639-EMC
STIPULATION TO RESET DISCOVERY DATES

1

A.

Background

2

On September 27, 2013, this Court entered a Scheduling Order, ordering

3 completion of non-expert discovery by, and submission of opening expert reports on,
4 February 6, 2014. [Dckt. 40] Expert discovery cut-off was set for March 20, 2014.
5 Id. On January 11, 2014, the parties filed a stipulation to extend the non-expert
6 discovery cut-off date from February 6, 2014 to February 14, 2014 to accommodate
7 time constraints for deposition schedules for three fact witnesses. [Dckt. 49] This
8 Court entered an order approving the stipulated request on January 13, 2014 [Dckt.
9 50], and the parties timely completed the required fact witness depositions on

LLP

HAMPTONHOLLEY

2101 East Coast Highway, Suite 260
Corona del Mar, California 92625

10 February 11, 2014. On February 10, 2014, Dr. Unni received, from a third party,
11 certain subpoenaed documents, which he asserts are highly relevant to his claims and
12 defenses. The parties were previously informed that documents responsive to the
13 subpoena could not be located. Dr. Unni asserts that the documents contain
14 information critical to the formation of an expert opinion and without that
15 information, Dr. Unni’s expert could not provide a complete opinion.
16
17

1.

Production of Deloitte & Touche (“Deloitte”) Documents

Dr. Unni asserts that an important issue in the instant matter is the tax

18 treatment of certain monies Dr. Unni received while employed with Defendant
19 LECG. Dr. Unni asserted defenses and counterclaims related to this topic and sought
20 discovery on the issue. On September 23, 2013, Dr. Unni served a subpoena on
21 Deloitte & Touche, identified as LECG’s accountants, for documents relating to
22 corporate salary and board expense deductions for fiscal years 2007 and 2008, the
23 two years that Dr. Unni received the payments at issue. Though Deloitte did not
24 provide formal Rule 45 objections to the subpoena, on October 4, 2013, it sent a
25 letter outlining reasons why it would not produce responsive documents. The parties
26 attempted to meet and confer to resolve these issues, but after counsel for Dr. Unni
27 and counsel for Deloitte were unable to connect after several attempts by both sides,
28 the documents were sought from LECG. On November 12, 2013, Dr. Unni served his
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Case No. CV 13-00639-EMC
STIPULATION TO RESET DISCOVERY DATES

1 Second Request for Production of Documents seeking this information. LECG
2 served timely objections to the request. The parties met and conferred on
3 December 17, 2013 and on Monday, December 23, 2013, LECG reported that it
4 searched for, but could not locate, responsive documents. Counsel for Dr. Unni then
5 re-commenced efforts to obtain the documents from Deloitte and, to that end, on
6 December 30, 2013: (a) had an initial meet and confer with Deloitte and (b) issued a
7 second subpoena for an oral deposition and production of documents. Between
8 December 30 and January 26, counsel for Dr. Unni, LECG and Deloitte engaged in
9 email and telephone communications regarding the existence and location of

LLP

HAMPTONHOLLEY

2101 East Coast Highway, Suite 260
Corona del Mar, California 92625

10 responsive documents and/or a deponent. On January 27, 2014, Deloitte’s counsel
11 confirmed by email that no documents responsive to the subpoena had been found
12 and therefore Deloitte would not produce a witness for the scheduled January 29,
13 2014 deposition date.
14

Dr. Unni asserts that on February 6, 2014, the date that expert disclosures were

15 required to be made, and unbeknownst to counsel for Dr. Unni, counsel for Deloitte
16 placed responsive documents in the U.S. mail and that, on February 10, 2014,
17 Dr. Unni received the Deloitte tax documents. Dr. Unni asserts that the documents
18 reflect what appear to be spreadsheets containing relevant information, but formatted
19 in an unreadable fashion. The parties conducted a meet and confer on February 12,
20 2014 and Dr. Unni’s counsel is currently awaiting a response regarding Deloitte’s
21 capability to produce the documents in a usable format.
22

Dr. Unni asserts that he has retained an expert to opine on the impact of the tax

23 treatment of payments made to Dr. Unni and that opinion is dependent on the
24 information contained and identified within these documents. Without the
25 information contained within the documents, Dr. Unni asserts that his expert was
26 unable to form a complete opinion and thus no opinion was disclosed on February 6.
27 Additionally, Dr. Unni seeks to take the deposition of Deloitte to ascertain
28 information regarding the documents.
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Case No. CV 13-00639-EMC
STIPULATION TO RESET DISCOVERY DATES

2.

1
2

Identification of Additional Witness Carol Kerr

On February 11, 2014, the deposition of LECG’s Rule 30(b)(6) corporate

3 representative, Ms. Jan Call, took place. Dr. Unni asserts that until that deposition, he
4 did not understand that Ms. Carol Kerr (now known as Carol Osborn) had specific
5 knowledge and information regarding the tax treatment of the bonus monies at issue
6 in this matter. Thus, Dr. Unni seeks to depose Ms. Kerr.
7

B.

Prior Requests for Extension

8

The parties have sought and received one extension of time in this manner to

9 extend non-expert discovery by one week to complete certain depositions, and those

LLP

HAMPTONHOLLEY

2101 East Coast Highway, Suite 260
Corona del Mar, California 92625

10 depositions have been completed.
11

C.

Requested Dates

12

As such, the parties stipulate to and request that the Scheduling Order in this

13 matter be modified as follows:
14

(1) reset the deadline for initial expert disclosures from February 6 to

15 March 10, to allow sufficient time (a) for Deloitte to provide the documents in a
16 usable form; (b) for Dr. Unni to depose Deloitte’s person most knowledgeable
17 regarding the documents and (c) to then disclose their expert report;
18

(2) extend the non-expert discovery cut-off from February 14 to March 10 to

19 allow for the completion of the Deloitte deposition, and to allow Dr. Unni to depose
20 Ms. Kerr;
21

(3) extend the date for rebuttal reports from February 27, 2014 to March 31,

22 2014;
23

(4) extend the date for closure of expert discovery from March 20, 2014 to

24 April 11, 2014; and
25

(5) extend the date for hearing on dispositive motions from May 1, 2014 to

26 May 15, 2014.
27

The parties do not believe that this will impact the trial date currently set in

28 this matter.
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Case No. CV 13-00639-EMC
STIPULATION TO RESET DISCOVERY DATES

1
2 Dated: February 13, 2014
3
4

Dean A. Dickie (appearing Pro Hac Vice)
Kathleen E. Koppenhoefer (appearing Pro Hac
Vice)
MILLER, CANFIELD, PADDOCK AND STONE, P.L.C.
George L. Hampton IV (State Bar No. 144433)
Colin C. Holley (State Bar No. 191999)
HAMPTONHOLLEY LLP

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6
7

By: /s/Dean A. Dickie
Attorneys for Defendant and Counterclaimant
Sanjay Unni

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9

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12

Dated: February 13, 2014

13

Edward Noonan (appearing Pro Hac Vice)
Mark A. Johnston (appearing Pro Hac Vice)
Sarah Shyr (appearing Pro Hac Vice)
ECKERT SEAMANS CHERIN & MELLOTT, LLC

14
/s/ Edward Noonan
Attorneys for Plaintiff and Counterdefendant
LECG, LLC

By:

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RT

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dward
Judge E

NO

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D

M. Che

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RDERE

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IT IS S

A

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DISTRIC
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IT IS SO ORDERED.
ES
AT
______________________
T
Edward M. Chen
U.S. District Judge

S

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R NIA

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FO

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UNIT
ED

LLP

HAMPTONHOLLEY

2101 East Coast Highway, Suite 260
Corona del Mar, California 92625

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Case No. CV 13-00639-EMC
STIPULATION TO RESET DISCOVERY DATES