Securities and Exchange Commission v. Contrarian Press, LLC et al

Filing 147

STIPULATED PROTECTIVE ORDER REGARDING THE DISCLOSURE OF PRIVILEGED INFORMATION...regarding procedures to be followed that shall govern the handling of confidential material...SO ORDERED., Motions terminated: #146 LETTER MOTION for Discovery Request for Approval of Stipulated Proposed Protective Order Regarding the Disclosure of Privileged Information addressed to Magistrate Judge Debra C. Freeman from Victor Suthammanont dated December 22, 2020. filed by Securities and Exchange Commission. (Signed by Magistrate Judge Debra C. Freeman on 1/8/2021) (jca)

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION,
Plaintiff,
-- against --

16 Civ. 6964 (VSB)

CONTRARIAN PRESS, LLC, SCOTT S.
FRASER, and NATHAN YEUNG,
Defendants.
STIPULATED [PROPOSED] PROTECTIVE ORDER REGARDING
THE DISCLOSURE OF PRIVILEGED INFORMATION

DF

WHEREAS, on December 2, 2020, the Court entered an Order (DE 145) directing the
parties “to meet and confer about entering into a protective order that outlines a protocol for
dealing with privileged materials, including processes for recovering any privileged material
inadvertently produced and for addressing privilege log challenges”; and
WHEREAS, Plaintiff Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and Defendants
Contrarian Press, LLC and Scott S. Fraser, by and through counsel, met and conferred in
accordance with the Court’s December 2, 2020 Order:
ACCORDINGLY, the parties, through their counsel, hereby agree:
1. This Order shall be applicable to and govern all deposition transcripts and/or videotapes,
documents produced in response to request for production of documents, answers to
interrogatories, responses to request for admissions, affidavits, declarations and all other
information or material produced, made available for inspection, or otherwise submitted by any
of the parties in this litigation as well as testimony adduced at trial or during any hearing
(collectively, “Information”).
2. Pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 502(d), and to the maximum level of protection

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allowed thereby, a party’s inadvertent disclosure or production of any Information in this
proceeding shall not, for the purposes of this proceeding or any other proceeding in any other
court, constitute a waiver by that party of any privilege or protection applicable to that
Information, including the attorney-client privilege, work product protection, or any other
privilege or protection recognized by law.
3. Subject to Paragraph 4 below, any party receiving any such inadvertently produced
Information shall, no later than five (5) business days following receipt of a written request (a)
identifying the Information that was inadvertently produced, and (b) specifying the basis for the
right to withhold such Information with the requisite specificity pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil
Procedure 26(b)(5), Local Rule 26.2, and Paragraph 6 below justifying the asserted basis for
privilege or protection (“Clawback Notice”), return the documents or Information to the
producing party or provide written notice to the producing party that they have been destroyed
or, in the case of the SEC, placed in a segregated database inaccessible to the SEC attorneys and
any support staff working on this matter, excluding information technology and litigation support
groups necessary to segregate and maintain the information, who shall have neither direct nor
indirect access to the Information (e.g., they shall not coordinate with others, who do have access
to the database, in order to examine or otherwise leverage the Information). Further, the
receiving party shall delete (or in the case of the SEC, segregate to an inaccessible database) any
version of the Information it maintains. Further, except as provided below in Paragraph 4, the
receiving party shall make no use of the information contained therein. For the avoidance of
doubt, the receiving party must implement the foregoing measures even if the receiving party
disputes the sufficiency and/or correctness of the producing party’s Clawback Notice, subject to
the receiving party’s right to challenge the clawback pursuant to Paragraph 4.

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a. Clawback Notices pursuant to this Order shall be given by a party no later than
five (5) calendar days of its actual notice, including the use by either party of the
Information within a deposition, discovery response (other than the production of
documents), correspondence, or filing in this matter, or the review of the
Information following its initial production, that it has inadvertently produced
Information.
b. Any analysis, memoranda, or notes which were internally generated based on
produced Information shall be placed in sealed envelopes on receipt of a
Clawback Notice, and shall be destroyed in the event that (a) the receiving party
does not contest that the information is privileged pursuant to Paragraph 4, or (b)
the Court rules that the information is privileged. Such analyses, memoranda, or
notes may only be removed from the sealed envelopes and returned to its intended
purpose in the event that (a) the producing party agrees in writing that the
information is not privileged or (b) the court rules that the information is not
privileged.
c. In the case of a deposition transcript or videotape, the party asserting the
clawback shall provide, at its cost, for a redacted transcript (in TXT, PDF, and
linked TextMap formats) and videotape to be delivered to the other party within
five (5) business days of the Clawback Notice.
4. The receiving party may contest the privilege assertion by the producing party and shall
give the producing party written notice of such disagreement no later than five (5) business days
following a Clawback Notice pursuant to Paragraph 3. The parties shall meet and confer in good
faith concerning the dispute. No later than ten (10) business days following the meet and confer

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or fifteen (15) business days from the Clawback Notice, whichever is later, the receiving party
may seek an order from the Court compelling production of the material. For purposes of the
meet and confer or the filing of a motion to compel only, the receiving party may retain and use
the Information notwithstanding the provisions of Paragraph 3 provided that (i) the Information
is otherwise segregated and not accessed by the parties except for use during the meet and confer
or motion to compel and (ii) in any motion to compel, the Information is filed under seal or
redacted to prevent the disclosure of the Information.
a. Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26, the party asserting the privilege
bears the burden of establishing the privilege or protection of any challenged
documents.
b. The producing party shall file any response to a motion to compel within 10
calendar days of the filing of a motion. The moving party may reply within 5
business days to a response.
5. Disclosure of the Information by the receiving party before the producing party
designates the Information as protected shall not be deemed a violation of this Order.
6. With respect to the production of documents following the date of this Order, the
producing party shall provide a privilege log describing any responsive documents withheld
pursuant to a claim of privilege providing at least the information under Federal Rule of Civil
Procedure 26(b)(5) and Local Rule 26.2. Such a log may be categorical pursuant to Local Rule
26.2(c).
7. No later than ten (10) business days following receipt of the privilege log pursuant to
Paragraph 6, the receiving party must provide notice to the producing party of any challenges to
(i) the content and information included in the privilege log and (ii) the substance of the privilege

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asserted. As soon as practicable, the parties shall meet and confer in good faith concerning the
challenges to resolve or narrow such challenges.
a. If after meeting and conferring in good faith, the producing party produces a
revised privilege log, the receiving party must provide notice of further challenges
to the content of the log and substance of the privileges asserted no later than five
(5) business days following receipt of a revised privilege log. The parties shall
meet and confer in good faith concerning the challenges to resolve or narrow such
challenges.
b. All challenges concerning the privilege logs or substance of the privileges
asserted are reserved pending completion of the meet and confer process such that
a single motion is brought that includes all remaining challenges concerning the
privilege logs or privileges asserted therein.
c. If after completing the meet and confer process outlined above, the parties are
unable to resolve the challenges, whether to the content of the privilege log or the
substance of the privilege asserted, the challenging party may file a motion
seeking appropriate relief no later than ten (10) business days from the date of the
last meet and confer.
d. The producing party shall file any response to a motion to compel within ten (10)
calendar days of the filing of a motion. The moving party may reply within five
(5) business days to a response.
8. No argument or challenge to a privilege claim concerning a particular document,
documents, or Information is waived because a party did not challenge a categorical assertion of
privilege or to the extent that the privilege log does not accurately describe the document(s) or

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Information withheld or the basis for the privilege.
9. The parties may, without further leave from the Court, agree to time extensions deviating
from this Order.
10. Nothing contained herein is intended to or shall serve to limit a party’s right to conduct a
review of documents or other information (including metadata) for relevance, responsiveness
and/or segregation of privileged and/or protected information before production.
Dated: December 21, 2020
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE
COMMISSION
By: __/s/ Victor Suthammanont______
Victor Suthammanont
200 Vesey Street, Suite 400
New York, NY 10281
[phone] (Suthammanont)
[e-mail]
Attorneys for Plaintiff Securities and
Exchange Commission

VEDDER PRICE
By: ___/s/ Michael J. Quinn______________
Michael J. Quinn
1925 Century Park East, Suite 1900
Los Angeles, CA 90067
[phone]
[e-mail]
K&L GATES LLP
By: ___/s/ Kevin Asfour___________________
Kevin Asfour
10100 Santa Monica Blvd, 8th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90067
[phone]
[e-mail]

SO ORDERED.
Dated: 1/8/21
New York, New York

Attorneys for Defendants Contrarian Press, LLC
and Scott S. Fraser

_________________________________________
Hon. Debra Freeman
United States Magistrate Judge

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