I. Introduction
Lеad Plaintiffs move to unseal certain discovery materials which certain defendants have designated as confidential pursuant to the protective order entered in this matter.
II. Facts
The factual and procedural history of this case is set forth in several decisions by Judge Kaplan, familiarity with which is assumed.
All of the documents
Here, Lead Plaintiffs have moved for an order striking the confidential designation of more than 200 documents submitted by the parties in connection with their motions for summary judgment. Lead Plaintiffs initially requested that defendants unseal approximately 1800 non-public documents which the parties cited in connection with their motions for summary judgment (Letter from James J. Sabella, Esq., Counsel for Lead Plaintiffs, to defendants’ counsel, dated Sept. 19, 2008 (“Pis.’ Sept. 2008 Letter”), annexed as Ex. 2 to Pis.’ Oct. 2008 Letter). Defendants— Grant Thornton International (“GTI”), Grant Thornton LLP (“GT-US”) (collectively, the “GT defendants”), Bank of America Corp., Bank of America, N.A., Banc of America Securities Ltd. (collectively, “BoA”), Citigroup Inc., Citibank, N.A., Eureka Securiti-sation pic (collectively, the “Citi defendants”) and Pavia e Ansaldo (“Pavia”) — refused to consent to removing their confidentiality designations, and Lead Plaintiffs submitted a letter memorandum to the Court requesting a pre-motion conference to resolve the matter (Pis.’ Oct. 2008 Letter).
Defendants submitted letter memoranda opposing Lead Plaintiffs’ request primarily on the grounds that Lead Plaintiffs’ motive in making the request was improper and the documents were not entitled to any presumption of public access (Deloitte Oct. 2008 Letter; Letter from James L. Bernard, Esq., Counsel for the GT defendants, to the Court, dated Oct. 17, 2008 (“GT Oct. 2008 Letter”); Letter from Joseph B. Tompkins, Jr., Esq., Counsel for BoA, to the Court, dated Oct. 17, 2008 (“BoA Oct. 2008 Letter”); Letter from Jason A. D’Angelo, Esq., Counsel for the Citi defendants, to the Court, dated Oct. 17, 2008 (“Citi Oct. 2008 Letter”); Letter from Christopher M. Brubaker, Esq., Counsel for Pavia, to the Court, dated Oct. 17, 2008). Because defendants made no specific factual showing concerning the confidential nature of the documents in issue, I directed the defendants to offer whatever evidence they chose to offer in support of their designations by November 26, 2008 (Order, dated Nov. 12, 2008).
The Deloitte defendants, the GT defendants, BoA and Pavia submitted letter mem-
Lead Plaintiffs subsequently narrowed their challenge to only 55 of the GT defendants’ documents and 172 of BoA’s documents, but maintained that all of the documents designated confidential by the Citi defendants that were submitted by the parties in connection with the summary judgment motions should be unsealed (Letter from James J. Sabella, Esq., Counsel for Lead Plaintiffs, to the Court, dated Jan. 15, 2009 (“Pis.’ Jan. 2009 Letter”), at 2). Lead Plaintiffs withdrew their request to strike the Deloitte defendants’ and Pavia’s confidentiality designations altogether (Pis.’ Jan. 2009 Letter at 2; Letter from James J. Sabella, Esq., Counsel for Lead Plaintiffs, to the Court, dated May 27, 2009).
In response, both the GT defendants and BoA submitted letter memoranda as well as their own spreadsheets setting forth document-by-doeument replies to Lead Plaintiffs’ challenges (Letter from James L. Bernard, Esq., Counsel for the GT defendants, to the Court, dated Feb. 13, 2009 (“GT Feb. 2009 Letter”); Spreadsheet annexed as Ex. A to GT Feb. 2009 Letter; Letter from Alan C. Geolot, Esq., Counsel for BoA, to the Court, dated Feb. 13, 2009 (“BoA Feb. 2009 Letter”); Spreadsheets annexed as Exs. A & B to BoA Feb. 2009 Letter). In addition, BoA renewed its argument that its documents were not entitled to any presumption of public access (BoA Feb. 2009 Letter at 2-3). However, the GT defendants failed to revisit that issue with respect to their documents (GT Feb. 2009 Letter at 2-3).
On March 16, 2009, I informed the parties that, in light of the extensive nature of their submissions regarding Lead Plaintiffs’ request for a pre-motion conference, I intended to construe Lead Plaintiffs’ submissions as a motion to remove the confidentiality designations from the narrowed set of documents identified in their January 15, 2009 letter and I would construe defendants’ responses as oppositions to that motion (Order, dated Mar. 16, 2009). I also directed the parties to submit additional materials, if any, addressing the merits of the dispute no later than March 23, 2009 (Order, dated Mar. 16, 2009). The parties made no additional submissions.
III. Analysis
A. Legal Principles
1. Burden of Showing Good Cause under Rule 26(c)
“Rule 26(c) confers broad discretion on the triаl court to decide when a protective order is appropriate and what degree of protection is required.” In re Zyprexa Injunction,
2. Presumption of Public Access
The “good cause” analysis is informed by the presumptions of public access under the common law and the First Amendment. Std. Inv. Chartered, Inc. v. Nat’l Ass’n of Sec. Dealers, Inc. (“Std. Inv. IV”),
There is a strong presumption of public access to “‘judicial documents,’ that is, such ‘items filed with the court that are relevant to the performance of the judicial function and useful in the judicial process.’” See In re Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001,454 F.Supp.2d 220 , 222 (S.D.N.Y.2006) (quoting SEC v.TheStreet.com,273 F.3d 222 , 231 (2d Cir.2001)). “Accordingly, a party seeking a protective order sealing trial, other court hearings, or motions and accompanying exhibits filed with the court must satisfy a more demanding standard of good cause.” In re Terrorist Attacks,454 F.Supp.2d at 222-23 .
Nevertheless, the Second Circuit has also noted that “an abundance of statements and documents generated in federal litigation actually have little or no bearing on the exercise of Article III judicial power .... Unlimited access to every item turned up in the course of litigation would be unthinkable.” [Amodeo ],71 F.3d at 1048 . Courts deciding protective order motions must therefore locate documents on “a continuum from matters that directly affect an adjudication to matters that come within a court’s purview solely to insure their irrelevance.” Id. at 1049.
Std. Inv. IV, supra,
In addition to the common law presumption of public access ..., courts have identified a similar, though more demanding, presumption stemming from the First Amendment. See, e.g., Lugosch [v. Pyramid Co. of Onondaga,435 F.3d 110 , 124 (2d Cir.2006) ]; Gambale,377 F.3d at 140 & n. 4. The First Amendment’s “qualified right of access to judicial documents” is “a necessary corollary of the capacity to attend the relevant proceedings.” Hartford Courant Co. v. Pellegrino,380 F.3d 83 , 93 (2d Cir.2004). Once a court has determined that “the more stringent First Amendment framework applies, continued sealing of the documents may be justified only with specific, on-the-record findings that sealing is necessary to preserve higher values and only if the sealing order is narrowly tailored to achieve that aim.” Lugosch,435 F.3d at 124 .
Std. Inv. Chartered, Inc. v. Nat’l Ass’n of Sec. Dealers, Inc., 07 Civ.2014(SWK),
As was recently re-articulated in Lugosch v. Pyramid Co. of Onondaga,435 F.3d 110 (2d Cir.2006), “documents submitted to a court for its consideration in a summary judgment motion are — as a matter of law — judicial documents to which a strong presumption of access attaches, under both the common law and the First Amendment.” Id. at 121. Lugosch notes that “summary judgment is an adjudication, and ‘[a]n adjudication is a formal act of governmеnt, the basis of which should, absent exceptional circumstances, be subject to public scrutiny.’ ” Id., (quoting Joy v. North,692 F.2d 880 , 893 (2d Cir.1982), cert. denied,460 U.S. 1051 ,103 S.Ct. 1498 ,75 L.Ed.2d 930 (1983) (brackets in original)). Thus, summary judgment documents “should not remain under seal absent the most compelling reasons.” Id.
Allen v. City of New York,
3. Exception for Specific Showing of Competitive Harm
Notwithstanding the presumption of public access to judicial records, courts may deny access to records that are “sources of business information that might harm a litigant’s competitive standing.” Nixon v. Warner Commc’ns, Inc.,
The party opposing disclosure must make a particular and specific demonstration of fact showing that disclosure would result in an injury sufficiently serious to warrant protection; broad allegations of harm unsubstantiated by specific examples or articulated reasoning fail to satisfy the test. See Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc.,
4. Applicable Trade Secret Definition
Although a business’s information need not be a “true” trade secret in order to warrant protection from disclosure under Rule 26(c), e.g., Gelb v. Am. Tel. & Tel. Co., supra,
(1) the extent to which the information is known outside of [the] business; (2) the extent to which it is known by employees and others involved in [the] business; (3) the extent of measures taken by [the business] to guard the secrecy of the information; (4) the value of the information to [the business] and [its] competitors; (5) the amount of effort or money expended by [the business] in developing the information; (6) the ease or difficulty with which the information could be properly acquired or duplicated by others.
United States v. Int’l Bus. Machs. Corp.,
The six factors assist the courts in determining whether information is “sufficiently valuable and secret to afford an actual or potential economic advantage over others.” Wiener v. Lazard Freres & Co.,
B. Lead Plaintiffs’ Allegedly Improper Motive
As a threshold matter, defendants argue that Lead Plaintiffs should not be permitted to unseal documents for the purpose of using them in pending lawsuits in Italy, in circumvention of Italian procedural rules that would not otherwise permit discovery of the documents (Deloitte Oct. 2008 Letter at 2-5; see also BoA Oct. 2008 Letter at 2-3). Even if Lead Plaintiffs were interested in using non-public information obtained in this action in an Italian lawsuit, they would not likely be able to do so without modification of the existing Protective Order, which survives this action, and which provides that “[a]ll information, ivhether designated confidential or not, that is produced or exchanged in the course of this action (other than information that is publicly available) shall be used by the party or parties to whom the information is produced solely for the purpose of this action” (Protective Order ¶¶ 1, 26, annexed as Ex. 1 to Pis.’ Oct. 10 Letter) (emphasis added). Thus, striking the confidentiality desig
Furthermore, even if Lead Plaintiffs could make such use of the documents produced in this action, defendants fail to cite persuasive authority for their assertion that the use of discovery materials in a foreign jurisdiction with less permissive discovery rules is an improper motive or otherwise constitutes good cause to keep such discovery under seal. Defendants cite to footnote 17 in Oppenheimer Fund, Inc. v. Sanders,
Defendants have therefore failed to sustain their burden of proving that Lead Plaintiffs’ supposedly improper motives constitute good cause for continued blanket confidential treatment for the challenged documents.
C. The Applicability of the Presumption of Access
BoA alone challenges the applicability of the common law presumption of access to its documents.
Furthermore, the documents in issue were “used by parties moving for, or opposing, summary judgment,” Lugosch v. Pyramid Co. of Onondaga, supra,
D. The Citi Defendants’ Documents
The Citi defendants chose not to make a specific factual showing in opposition to Lead Plaintiffs’ request to strike the confidentiality designations from their documents (Letter from Jason A. D’Angelo, Esq., Counsel for the Citi Defendants, to the Court, dated Nov. 26, 2008). As a result, Lead Plaintiffs maintained their original request that “all of the Citi[ defendants’] materials submitted on the summary judgment motions should be unsealed” (Pis.’ Jan. 2009 Letter at 2). The Citi defendants noted that some of their documents were subject to an additional protective order in an action pending in the Superior Court of New Jersey (Citi Oct. 2008 Letter at 1). However, it is not for this Court to oversee compliance with another court’s order. Accordingly, I direct that the confidentiality designations be stricken from those documents identified in Lead Plaintiffs’ September 19, 2008 Letter which the Citi defendants designated as confidential. As used in the remainder of this Opinion and Order, references to “defendants” do not include the Citi defendants.
1. Overview
In support of their argument to maintain the documents under seal, defendants first submit testimony from their employees asserting that the information in their documents was developed at substantial cost, was never disclosed to third parties except pursuant to an agreement to keep the information confidential, and would cause significant economic harm to defendants if the documents were disclosed to competitors. For the most part, the testimony offered does not discuss the contents of specific documents. Second, defendants submit letter memoranda in which they cite easelaw purportedly showing that there is good cause to protect their documents under Rule 26. Third, defendants submit spreadsheets prepared by counsel that briefly discuss each document and allude to reasons why particular documents should remain under seal.
With scattered exceptions, defendants (1) make only vague and conclusory showings of the economic value of the information contained in any particular document and (2) make minimal or nonexistent showings of the potential harm that disclosure of particular information would cause. Furthermore, the documents at issue often do not reveal the information that defendants claim they contain. As a result, defendants have failed to sustain their burden of showing good cause to keep the documents under seal.
2. The Grant Thornton Defendants
a. Introduction
The GT defendants specify five amorphous categories of supposedly proprietary information which they seek to protect from disclosure: “operations and policy information,” “strategic information,” “financial information,” “audit materials” and “meeting minutes of governing boards” (GT Nov. 2008 Letter at 2). The GT defendants have submitted separate statements from GT-US and GTI witnesses, which attempt to show good cause to maintain the two entities’ documents under seal. The GT defendants have also submitted a spreadsheet that discusses why certain documents are “proprietary” (the “GT Spreadsheet”) (GT Spreadsheet, annexed as Ex. A to GT Feb. 2009 Letter). Each of the entries on the GT spreadsheet includes some version of the following statement: “Accordingly, as GT-US’s [or GTI’s] submissions make clear, this document, the public disclosure of which would disadvantage GT-US [or GTI], is entitled to continued confidentiality protection” (GT Spreadsheet, annexed as Ex. A to GT Feb. 2009 Letter, at 8). In support of this statement, the GT defendants cite to portions of their letter memoranda and witness statements. However, neither the GT defendants’ letter mem-oranda nor their witness statements demonstrates that the disclosure of any of the 55 documents at issue would reveal information that is not commonly known in the trade and that would cause a specific and significant harm to GT-US or GTI.
b. Operations and Policy Information
The GT defendants first seek to protect their “operations and policy information” (GT Nov. 2008 Letter at 5-6). The GT defendants’ witness statements explain, in broad terms, that GT-US and GTI policies and procedures are valuable to those entities (Declaration of Russell G. Wieman, National Managing Partner of Audit and Advisory Services of GT-US, dated Nov. 25, 2008 (“Wieman Decl.”), ¶4, annexed as undesignated exhibit to GT Nov. 2008 Letter; Declaration of J.W. Mike Starr, Chief Operating Officer of GTI, dated November 25, 2008 (“Starr Decl.”), ¶ 6, annexed as undesignated exhibit to GT Nov. 2008 Letter). GT-US’s witness gives the examples of GT-US “internal risk management and quality control policies” as examples of valuable policies, and he cites the GT-US audit manual as an example of a document containing valuable procedures (Wieman Decl. ¶¶ 6, 11, annexed as undesignated exhibit to GT Nov. 2008 Letter).
The GT defendants do not claim that the documents in issue contain the actual text of particular policies or procedures. Rather, the GT defendants seek to protect unspecified operations and policy “information” that is neither a policy nor a рrocedure. Howev
Moreover, my in camera review of both GTI’s and GT-US’s documents has not revealed that they expressly or impliedly refer to any of the sorts of policies or procedures described by the GT defendants’ witnesses. GT-US’s documents reveal specific aspects of GT-US’s work that related to Parmalat. For example, the documents reveal discounted rates at which GT-US billed its services related to Parmalat matters, discussions among GT-US employees concerning whether to continue the GT firms’ relationship with Parmalat, discussions of why Parmalat terminated its relationship with GT-US and other GT firms, and GT-US employees’ concerns regarding GT-Italy’s management structure and style. The GT-US documents discuss specific GT-US employee opinions, decisions and actions, but do not suggest whether these actions were consistent with or relied on GT-US policies or procedures.
Similarly, most of GTI’s documents in the “operations and policy information” category discuss GTI employees’ concerns with GT-Italy without discussing the content of any particular policies or procedures. For example, there are several reports describing the results of GTI “reviews” of GT-Italy in October 1998 and December 1999 and a “followup” in December 2001. These reports discuss the ways in which GT-Italy needed improvement in its management, training, risk management and quality control procedures. In addition, some of the deposition testimony that Lead Plaintiffs wish to unseal discusses the possibility of a member firm being removed from the GTI network, as GT-Italy eventually was. However, at no point did the documents in issue reveal the content of any policies or procedures concerning the actions of GTI, GT-US or GT-Italy; they did not discuss the content of GTI’s specific policies concerning the behavior of member firms and the grounds for their removal from the GTI network. As a result, the GT defendants have failed to meet their burden of showing good cause to protect the documents challenged by Lead Plaintiffs on the theory that they contain “operations and policy information.”
c. Strategic and Financial Information
The GT defendants also seek to protect information that they refer to as “strategic” or “financial.” The “strategic” category generally contains documents from 2001 that discuss whether and how GTI and its member firms might attempt to market themselves in a manner that would create the appearance of a global firm, rather than a network of firms. The “strategic” category also contains several documents that do not appear to fit in the category; for example, testimony concerning a meeting in which an officer of GTI directed GT-Italy to make certain changes as a condition of remaining in the GTI network. The “financial” category contains documents from 1998 and 1999 that discuss the discounts that various GT firms granted to Parmalat.
GT-US, but not GTI,
GT-US has not, however, explained why the seven-year-old information concerning its marketing strategy has any continued value to the firm today or why the information might otherwise cause GT-US harm if it was disclosed. GT-US argues that its strategic decisionmaking “is the means by which ... GT-US evaluated] prior work, identifies] goals for the future, and develop[s] plans for many aspects of [its] business,” and that, if disclosed, its competitors would have what amounted to a “playbook documenting how ... GT-US ... evaluated and addressed some of [its] most important decisions and why [it] ... deemed a particular course of action to be most advantageous” (GT Nov. 2009 Letter at 7). However, strategic decisionmaking is necessarily fact-specific. GT-US has not shown how any aspect of GT-US’s decisionmaking concerning its marketing strategy in 2001 would be helpful to anyone attempting to understand GT-US’s current marketing strategy, or any of its other strategic decisionmaking, for that matter.
Similarly, GT-US argues that “ ‘a competitor could determine the strength or relative vulnerability of [GT-US’s] financial condition’ ... [,] gain insight into the financial processes of [GT-US]” and “target certain member firms and attempt to lure them away from the GTI network by offering them more competitive fees” if it gained access to GT-US’s financial information (GT Nov. 2009 Letter at 9). However, GT-US has failed to offer any factual evidence to support either the secrecy or the value of its financial information; its witness simply did not discuss this information in his testimony (see generally Wieman Decl., annexed as undesignated exhibit to GT Nov. 2008 Letter; Wieman 2009 Decl., annexed as undesignated exhibit to GT Feb. 2009 Letter). Thus, the GT defendants have not shown good cause to protect the documents challenged by Lead Plaintiffs on the ground that they cоntain “strategic information” or “financial information.”
d. Audit Materials
GT-US
Based on my in camera review, most of the documents in issue make no mention of GT-US’s “manuals, software and other auditing tools.” The vast majority of the documents in the category relate to specific company actions or decisions, and there is no way to discern from the documents whether these actions or decisions reveal GT-US’s overall business manuals, software or tools or whether they “reflect” the application of those manuals and tools. For example, the documents discuss in general terms the procedures to be performed by GT firms as part of Parmalat’s disclosure of financial information prior to an initial public offering, and they describe the financial materials that the GT firms required from Parmalat. They also describe the pace and completeness of Par-malat’s production of such materials to the GT firms and the potential adjustments that Parmalat might have to make to its Italian financial statements in order to meet United
With respect to any of the “audit materials” that might arguably reveal something about GT-US’s auditing approach, GT-US has shown that the documents are secret because they are kept confidential within the firm, and only disclosed to others with the understanding that they too will keep the documents confidential (Wieman 2009 Decl. ¶ 1, annexed as undesignated exhibit to GT Feb. 2009 Letter).
However, GT-US’s showings of the value of the documents and resulting potential harm to the firm from the documents’ disclosure are conclusory and unilluminating (Wieman Decl. ¶¶ 7, 10, annexed as undesignated exhibit to GT Nov. 2008 Letter). GT-US’s witness states that “GT-US has expended [and continues to expend] substantial financial and persоnnel resources ... developing and refining its audit materials so as to be able to provide industry-leading services to its clients ... [and] to hone proven techniques and cultivate new ones to effectively respond to legal and regulatory developments, client needs and industry trends” (Wieman Decl. ¶ 7, annexed as undesignated exhibit to GT Nov. 2008 Letter). However, GT-US’s witness does not explain which of GT-US’s auditing tools disclosed by the documents in issue provide valuable, as opposed to generic, information. GT-US also does not specify which of its documents, if any, reveal “proven techniques” or the key to its “industry leading” services. Surely some auditing techniques are standard in the industry and already well-known among GT-US’s competitors, but GT-US makes no showing concerning whether any of these techniques allegedly disclosed by the documents are not otherwise commonly known in the trade. Because GT-US fails to offer specific evidence showing that any of its “audit materials” contain information that confers on GT-US a particular advantage not already commonly known to the industry, GT-US’s witness’s conclusory testimony to the contrary rings hollow.
Furthermore, because the GT defendants have failed to make a specific factual showing of the harm that would result from the disclosure of certain information in each document, their citation to cases that involved sufficient showings of potential harm cannot fill the gap.
e. Meeting Minutes of Governing Boards
Finally, the GT defendants seek to protect the meeting minutes from GTI’s governing and advisory boards (GT Nov. 2008 Letter at 9-10). GTI’s witness claims that “[m]inutes and notes from [committee] meetings are only circulated internally to those individuals who are appointed or elected to serve” on the committee in question, and that “[t]his information gives an in-depth look into the internal governance and the strategic decision making process within GTI and member firms” (Starr Decl. ¶¶ 27-28, annexed as undesignated exhibit to GT Nov. 2008 Letter). However, the two documents in this category remaining in issue — Deposition Exhibits
Moreover, the GT defendants have not shown that these particular documents reveal valuable information about any board or committee’s decisionmaking process, or that the information would be harmful if disclosed. DX 1374 discusses whether the audit policy committee should revisit one of its “recommendations” concerning whether GTI’s member firms should disclose to their clients GTI’s actual structure, ie., a network of independent national firms, rather than a single global firm. Although the last email in the chain was sent only to members of the GTI Board of Governors, it does not reveal any deliberations of the Board or the audit committee themselves concerning that issue. Similarly, DX 1383 is an email that counsel represents to be from one member of GTI’s audit policy committee to the other members of the committee concerning whether to permit the disclosure of elements of GTI’s audit software to university students. It reveals one committee member’s opinion concerning the proposal and refers to the “development of a policy concerning release of Explorer outside of GTI that we discussed at our last meeting.” It does not reveal the “internal governance and the strategic decisionmaking process” of the committee. Although both documents certainly discuss policies or recommendations that GTI’s governing bodies have made, they do not reveal anything about these bodies’ decisionmaking processes other than the fact that they made decisions concerning the issues described above. Because GTI has not explained what other valuable aspect of its Board or committee de-cisionmaking processes these documents reveal, it hаs not shown good cause to keep these documents under seal.
3. BoA
BoA claims that its documents contain one or more of the following categories of information that it alleges are valuable and kept confidential: (1) BoA’s “process for conducting credit review and analysis” [68 documents], (2) “financial and strategic business information of [BoA’s] clients” [3 documents], (3) information regarding “methods used to structure and market transactions to clients” [30 documents], (4) information “detailing] confidential communications with potential or actual investors in a transaction” [16 documents], (5) descriptions of BoA’s “pricing strategy and fee arrangements” [6 documents], and (6) “transaction documents” [36 documents], (BoA Nov. 2008 Letter at 2). BoA has also categorized 23 documents not mentioned in its letter memoranda as “miscellaneous.”
a. Credit Review and Analysis Process
BoA first claims that its process of analyzing and reviewing credit, as revealed by the documents in issue, is entitled to protection. This category includes documents discussing Parmalat’s and its subsidiaries’ financial condition and creditworthiness in the context of BoA’s deciding whether to lend additional money to those entities, and BoA’s planning and execution of the sale of those entities’ debt to third party investors. In support of its position, BoA offers the testimony of its Senior Risk Manager, Douglas Keyston, that “credit review and financial analysis of the Bank’s customers are the core functions of the Bank” (Declaration of Douglas Keyston, Senior Risk Manager at BoA’s Global Corporate & Investment Bank, dated Nov. 25, 2008 (“Keyston Deck”), ¶ 6.a, annexed as Ex. B to BoA Nov. 2008 Letter) and that, “[although the Bank continues to refine its credit and financial analysis processes, the core of these processes [remains] relevant today as the current credit policies, processes, and procedures relate to those that were in effect in the 1990s” (Keyston Deck ¶ 6.d, annexed as Ex. B to BoA Nov. 2008 Letter). Keyston also claims that BoA has developed these processes by “expend[ing] significant time and money” (Keyston Deck ¶ 6.a, annexed as Ex. B to BoA Nov. 2008 Letter), that it “prohibits] employees from disseminating such information externally” and that it “instructs its employees not to share client information with employees within the Bank who do not need to know it” (Keyston Deck ¶ 6.c, annexed as Ex. B to BoA Nov. 2008 Letter).
Furthermore, unlike the documents in the cases cited by BoA, the documents in issue here do not reveal how BoA combines these commonplace credit review factors into a single credit review score, or how it might apply the factors in another company’s case. See Smith v. Equifax Info. Servs., Inc., 3:04 CV 01660 CFD TP,
With respect to potential harm, BoA argues that “knowledge of the Bank’s credit policies and how the policies are executed with regard to particular customers” could furnish third parties a “potential avenue for fraud” and allow them to “obtain capital which they otherwise could not obtain” (Keyston Decl. ¶ 6.f, annexed as Ex. B to BoA Nov. 2008 Letter). The documents in issue tend to reveal BoA’s determinations concerning whether and how to extend credit to Parmalat entities and sell that debt to third parties, not an overarching credit policy
b. Financial and Strategic Business Information of Clients
BoA also argues that release of its credit review and analysis information “could inflict commercial harm on thе Bank” because “customers may not take lightly the fact that confidential information about a former Bank client’s creditworthiness was disclosed to the public” (Keyston Deck ¶ 6.e, annexed as Ex. B to BoA Nov. 2008 Letter). This argument merges with BoA’s argument concerning the theoretically broader category of “financial and strategic business information of clients,” because the only client’s information remaining in issue in that category is a Parmalat subsidiary’s information. With respect to that category of documents, BoA argues that
[r]evelation of the Bank’s customers’ confidential information may significantly harm the Bank’s commercial reputation. If customers do not trust the Bank’s ability to maintain the confidentiality of their nonpublic commercial and financial information, customers may be unwilling to provide the Bank with sensitive information that would be part of any proper and complete analysis of financing needs and capabilities. Alternatively, customers may opt to bank elsewhere.
(Keyston Deck ¶ 13.b, annexed as Ex. B to BoA Nov. 2008 Letter). BoA’s argument that its customers will retaliate against BoA for disclosing Parmalat’s information in connection with a federal litigation is pure speculation. Needless to say, Parmalat has not intervened to object to the disclosure of its information, and I am puzzled аs to why BoA believes that other customers would be concerned about BoA’s being ordered to disclose information concerning its dealings with a customer that engaged in a massive fraud. It is difficult to understand why honest business persons would be concerned about disclosure of the details of a fraudulent enterprise.
Absent a more rigorous and convincing showing of potential harm to BoA, the obvious public interest in such scrutiny outweighs any interest that BoA may have in maintaining its customers’ information private.
c. Transaction Documents
BoA also seeks protection for information regarding “methods used to structure and market transactions to clients,” information “detail[ing] confidential communications with potential or actual investors in a transaction,” descriptions of BoA’s “pricing strategy and fee arrangements,” and “transaction documents.” Having viewed the documents in these categories in camera, it is clear that, in actuality, they can all be categorized as documents that reveal BoA’s activities surrounding its extending credit to Parmalat and BoA’s acting as a private placement agent for Parmalat’s debt on several occasions between 1997 and 2001. These documents span most of that time period and include BoA’s internal discussions concerning how to structure the transactions to make them less risky and more lucrative, thе profit the transactions would generate for BoA,
I accept BoA’s representation that the documents at issue in these categories are not disclosed to the general public. BoA has not made any representation concerning whether it disclosed the documents in issue to customers and prospective investors with the agreement that they be maintained in confidence. Such customers and potential investors would presumably risk losing the opportunity to participate in the transaction if they contemporaneously divulged information about the transaction to others. However, their incentive to keep the information confidential is presumably less strong now, more than seven years after the transactions were completed. As a result, BoA has made a weak showing of the secrecy of the information in issue.
As to the value and potential harmfulness of the information, BoA’s showing, like the GT defendants’ showing, fails to address the specific information in the specific series of transactions in issue, and it fails to explain why the specific types of transactions in issue would potentially be copied by any competitor today. Methods of structuring and marketing transactions, like the GT defendants’ strategic decisionmaking, are necessarily fact-specific. The components of complex financial transactions, unlike recipe ingredients, cannot be readily copied because they are not suitable for all types of companies. Furthermore, even recipes are not protectible as trade secrets if they are commonly known in the industry. BoA has failed to explain what particular information about the particular transaction structures and marketing techniques used here are not already public, are not already commonly known in the industry, and yet are valuable to competitors now. Furthermore, in the cases most closely on point cited by BoA, the courts protected companies’ specific plans and strategies for marketing and selling their specific products from being disclosed to competitors. See, e.g., Sullivan Mktg., Inc. v. Valassis Commc’ns, Inc., supra,
With respect to fee information, BoA’s showing fails for essentially the same reason. It has not come forward with specific facts showing that disclosure of the specific fees that it charged to Parmalat for this series of transactions would tend to be damaging now, seven to fourteen years after the fact. Whether pricing information is a trade secret is extremely fact-specific. Lehman v. Dow Jones & Co., Inc., 783 F.2d 285, 297-98 & n. 16 (2d Cir.1986). Economic circumstances may change. Potential parties to a transaction may change. BoA’s statements that competitors might “adjust” their sales and pricing, and that various clients might be irate at the “favorable or exclusive terms” in the transactions, might have been compelling if they had been coupled with citations to specific information contained in the documents that would cause such reactions if it were disclosed today.
BoA again cites to Encyclopedia Brown Productions, Ltd. v. Home Bоx Office, Inc., supra,
d. “Miscellaneous” Documents
Finally, BoA seeks to protect 23 documents which it has categorized only as “miscellaneous.” Of these documents, only nine are truly in issue.
The remaining two documents both fall into the “transaction documents” category already discussed: the Davis Deposition at 584:7 through 587:14 discusses earlier and later versions of one of the BoA’s Brazilian Parmalat transactions, and DX 9131 contains the minutes of a 1998 board meeting of a Parmalat entity approving several different agreements amounting to a complex transaction of the same type discussed above. Bеcause BoA has not provided any additional substantive showing of the secrecy or value of these documents, it has not shown good cause to keep them under seal for the same reasons stated in Part III.E.3.C, above, discussing BoA’s “transaction documents.”
4. Summary
In sum, the GT defendants and BoA have not made the specific showing of good cause necessary to rebut Lead Plaintiffs’ challenge to the confidentiality of any of the documents specified in Lead Plaintiffs’ January 15, 2009 Letter. They have failed to show that the disclosure of any of the particular documents in issue would reveal business information that is sufficiently valuable and secret that it could cause competitive harm to them now.
IV. Conclusion
Accordingly, for all the foregoing reasons, Lead Plaintiffs’ motion is granted. Defendants’ designations of confidentiality are stricken with respect to all documents listed on the schedules annexed hereto. The Citi defendants’ designations of confidentiality are also stricken with respect to all documents produced by them and submitted by the parties in connection with the parties’ summary judgment motions.
SO ORDERED.
EXHIBITS
GT Defendants’ Documents
Document Type Document Number
Deposition Exhibit 1225
Deposition Exhibit 1556
Deposition Exhibit 1217
Deposition Exhibit 1215
Deposition Exhibit 1032
Deposition Exhibit 1029
Deposition Exhibit 1028
Deposition Exhibit 1219
Deposition Exhibit 1374
Deposition Exhibit 1072
Deposition Exhibit 1200
Deposition Exhibit 1081
Deposition Exhibit 1082
Deposition Exhibit 1083
Deposition Exhibit 1097
Deposition Exhibit 1086
Deposition Exhibit 1383
Deposition Exhibit 1731
Document GT-UK000945
Document GT-UK000091-93
Document GT-UK000937-939
Document PP00444628-444644
Document PP00444667
Document GT-UK00006-119
Document GT-UK000118-119
Document GT-UK000900-902
Document GTUK000898-1014
Document GT-UK00060
Document GT-UK 000033-34
Document GTI-0041396-41398
Testimony Akerblom 8/10/2006 130:19-131:9
Testimony Akerblom 8/10/2006 143:23-144:15
Testimony Akerblom 8/10/2006 179:5-181:3
Testimony Akerblom 8/10/2006 234:14-21
Testimony Akerblom 8/10/2006 234:3-235:7
Testimony Akerblom 8/10/2006 234:4-21
Testimony Akerblom 8/10/2006 255:2-20
Testimony Barber 9/27/2006 176:5-16
Testimony Barber 9/27/2006 217:9-15
Testimony Esposito 10/6/2006 104:17-105:4
Testimony Esposito 10/6/2006 255:10-258:6
Testimony Esposito 10/6/2006 256:9-260:2
Testimony Esposito 10/6/2006 259:14-260:4
Testimony Esposito 10/6/2006 292:15-293:3
Testimony Esposito 10/6/2006 295:22-298:2
Testimony Esposito 10/6/2006 299:22-301:10
Testimony Esposito 10/6/2006 307:21-310:4
Testimony Esposito 10/6/2006 309:5-13
Testimony Hartley, M. 03/02/2007 109:8-25
Testimony Hartley, M. 03/02/2007 183:22-184:6
Testimony Hartley, M. 03/02/2007 190:18-23
Testimony Kleekner 11/3/2006 51:25-58:4
Testimony Kleekner 11/3/2006 95:6-97:9
Testimony McDonnell (GTI 30(B)(6)) 2/15/2007 79:21-25
Bank of America Documents
Document Type Document Number
Deposition Exhibit 106
Deposition Exhibit 136
Deposition Exhibit 154
Deposition Exhibit 189
Deposition Exhibit 190
Deposition Exhibit 213
Deposition Exhibit 251
Deposition Exhibit 252
Deposition Exhibit 347
Deposition Exhibit ' 349
Deposition Exhibit 356
Deposition Exhibit 438
Deposition Exhibit 441
Deposition Exhibit 442
Deposition Exhibit 457
Deposition Exhibit 496
Deposition Exhibit 557
Deposition Exhibit 558
Deposition Exhibit 559
Deposition Exhibit 565
Deposition Exhibit 566
Deposition Exhibit 568
Deposition Exhibit 569
Deposition Exhibit 570
Deposition Exhibit 576
Deposition Exhibit 577
Deposition Exhibit 580
Deposition Exhibit 581
Deposition Exhibit 582
Deposition Exhibit 583
Deposition Exhibit 585
Deposition Exhibit 586
Deposition Exhibit 587
Deposition Exhibit 590
Deposition Exhibit 591
Deposition Exhibit 592
Deposition Exhibit 593
Deposition Exhibit 595
Deposition Exhibit 596
Deposition Exhibit 597
Deposition Exhibit 598
Deposition Exhibit 599
Deposition Exhibit 600
Deposition Exhibit 601
Deposition Exhibit 602
Deposition Exhibit 603
Deposition Exhibit 611
Deposition Exhibit 616
Deposition Exhibit 618
Deposition Exhibit 628
Deposition Exhibit 634
Deposition Exhibit 636
Deposition Exhibit 637
Deposition Exhibit 638
Deposition Exhibit 639
Deposition Exhibit 641
Deposition Exhibit 660
Deposition Exhibit 661
Deposition Exhibit 663
Deposition Exhibit 688
Deposition Exhibit 710
Deposition Exhibit 801
Deposition Exhibit 804
Deposition Exhibit 805
Deposition Exhibit 806
Deposition Exhibit 1355
Deposition Exhibit 4145
Deposition Exhibit 4188
Deposition Exhibit 4189
Deposition Exhibit 4315
Deposition Exhibit 4321
Deposition Exhibit 4398
Deposition Exhibit 4404
Deposition Exhibit 4408
Deposition Exhibit 4410
Deposition Exhibit 4411
Deposition Exhibit 4412
Deposition Exhibit 4413
Deposition Exhibit 4416
Deposition Exhibit 4421
Deposition Exhibit 4426
Deposition Exhibit 4428
Deposition Exhibit 4429
Deposition Exhibit 4432
Deposition Exhibit 4435
Deposition Exhibit 4437
Deposition Exhibit 4439
Deposition Exhibit 4440
Deposition Exhibit 4443
Deposition Exhibit 4445
Deposition Exhibit 4452
Deposition Exhibit 4453
Deposition Exhibit 4455
Deposition Exhibit 4459
Deposition Exhibit 4497
Deposition Exhibit 9042
Deposition Exhibit 9131
Deposition Exhibit 9191
Deposition Exhibit 9202
Deposition Exhibit 9204
Deposition Exhibit 9206
Deposition Exhibit 9209
Deposition Exhibit 10013
Deposition Exhibit 10019
Deposition Exhibit 10050
Deposition Exhibit 20195
Document BOFA-OOH444
Document BOFA-0536674-536764
Document BOFA-0769903-769990
Document BOFA-1965630-1965739
Document BOFA-1972567-197572
Document BOFA-2002617-2002619
Document BOFA-2009942-2010052
Document BOFA-2022498
Document BOFA-2027760-2027761
Document BOFA-2057484-2057485
Document BOFA-2059459-2059539
Document BOFA-2072304-2072306
Document BOFA-2072348-2072349
Document B OFA-2238238-2238239
Document BOFA-2453908-2453913
Document BOFA-2454072-2454154
Document BOFA-2475355-58 (Ex. 4496)
Document P01173220-1173317
Document P02260820-02260828
Document P02785846-2785848
Document P03420823
Document P03860997
Document P03861215-3861222
Document P04572208^t572219
Document P04898179-489819Ó
Testimony Bondi 97:6-12
Testimony Bouhadiba 183:23-186:23
Testimony Bouhadiba 222:14-223:11
Testimony Bouhadiba 50:12-23
Testimony Bouhadiba 51:18-23
Testimony Caldwell 212:12-213:25
Testimony Chalk 253:1-255:23
Testimony Chalk 272:4-6
Testimony Chalk 279:3-18
Testimony Chalk 324:15-19
Testimony Chalk 325:3-11
Testimony Davis 584:7-587:14
Testimony Dharan 30(b)(6) 1862:1-17
Testimony Dharan 30(b)(6) 1941:3-10
Testimony Dharan 30(b)(6) 1950:7-1951:2
Testimony Dharan 30(b)(6) 1806:2-17
Testimony Dharan 30(b)(6) 1923:25-1924:22
Testimony Dharan 30(b)(6) 2599:5-2608:17
Testimony Dharan 30(b)(6) 2608:18-2610:12
Testimony Dharan 30(b)(6) 2611:2-2615:10
Testimony Dharan 30(b)(6) 2621:13-2622:12
Testimony Donzelli 73:12-23
Testimony Lau 1005:11-15
Testimony Lau 1028:15-1030:18
Testimony Lau 1029:15-23
Testimony Lau 434:24^436:2
Testimony Lau 701:2-21
Testimony Lau 758:5-759:17
Testimony Lau 957:18-959:10
Testimony Lau 974:14-25
Testimony Lau 974:7-13
Testimony MacRae 156:3-15
Testimony MacRae 335:9-13
Testimony McCormick 1449:3-25
Testimony McCormick 1456:1-1457-19
Testimony McCormick 4201:11-25
Testimony McCormick 4202:1-20
Testimony McCormick 4347:6-12
Testimony McCormick 5943:13-5949:13
Notes
. The Honorable Lewis A. Kaplan, United States District Judge, ordered that discovery motions be referred to me for resolution (Order, dated Jan. 11, 2007, Docket Item 735). Defendants nevertheless argue that Lead Plaintiffs should have addressed their motion to Judge Kaplan because he is more familiar with the information filed under seal, the applicable law, and the Protective Order in this case (Letter from Michael J. Dell, Esq., Counsel for the Deloitte defendants, to the Court, dated Oct. 17, 2008 ("Deloitte Oct. 2008 Letter”), at 1). However, the motion pertains to discovery, and defendants have not identified any exception in Judge Kaplan’s Order of Reference that would apply here. Moreover, Judge Kaplan sent the parties' submissions concerning this dispute to me, which is the clearest indication imaginable that he wishes me to address this dispute. Accordingly, I address the merits of Lead Plaintiff's motion.
. I use the term "documents” to encompass both documents produced by the parties and deposition transcripts.
. Although Lead Plaintiffs initially continued to challenge 40 of the Deloitte defendants' confidentiality designations, Lead Plaintiffs withdrew that challenge when Lead Plaintiffs reached a settlement with the Deloitte defendants (Letter from James J. Sabella, Esq., Counsel for Lead Plaintiffs, to the Court, dated May 27, 2009).
. The circuit courts are split with respect to the specificity of proof necessary for good cause under Rule 26(c). See Topo v. Dhir,
. Lead Plaintiffs' third amended complaint alleged only violations of Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934
. Defendants also cite to Well-Made Toy Manufacturing Corp. v. Lotus Onda Industrial Co., 00 Civ. 9605(DFE),
. The GT defendants initially raised a similar challenge; however they failed to revisit the issue after Lead Plaintiffs substantially revised their document disclosure request. In their October 17, 2008 letter to the Court, the GT defendants stated that "many” of the 515 documents which Lead Plaintiffs initially sought to unseal "were neither cited nor relevant to any of the limited issues briefed for summary judgment,” and that the Court should therefore “reject Lead Plaintiffs' claim that all of the documents on their list should be unsealed because they are 'judicial documents' ” (GT Oct. 2008 Letter at 2). Lead Plaintiffs subsequently reduced the number of the GT defendants' documents that they sought to unseal from 515 to 55 (Pis.' Jan. 2009 Letter at 2). The GT defendants chose not revisit the issue of whether the 55 remaining documents were relevant to the "issues briefed for summary judgment” in their reply to Lead Plaintiffs' revised request (GT Feb. 2009 Letter). It is clear, from my in camera review, that many of the documents in question are relevant to the primary issue on which Judge Kaplan entertained the GT defendants' arguments for summary judgment, namely, the existence of principal-agent relationships among GT-US, GTI, and GT Italy. See In re Parmalat Sec. Litig., supra,
. See C.A. Muer Corp. v. Big River Fish Co., Civ.A. 97-5402, Civ.A. 97-6073, Civ.A. 97-7154,
GTI’s witness did not discuss the secrecy and value of information concerning its marketing and branding strategy, so it has not shown good cause to protect its documents on that topic. Further, there are no GTI documents containing financial information that remain in issue, so it is not necessary to address GTI's showing concerning such documents.
. Lead Plaintiffs have, for the present, withdrawn their challenge to the confidentiality of all GTI documents that GTI previously designated as "audit materials.” Thus, it is not necessary to address GTI's arguments concerning those documents.
. The GT defendants offered more specific explanations of the harms that would result from the disclosure of particular audit manuals, member firm agreements and board meeting minutes (GT Nov. 2008 Letter at 5, 6, 8). However, Lead Plaintiffs no longer seek the disclosure of such materials.
. The parties apparently used a master numbering system for all deposition exhibits, regardless of the deposition at which they were introduced (see List of Documents and Testimony Cited in Summary Judgment Briefs, annexed as part of Ex. 2 to Pis.’ Oct. 2008 Letter).
. I take judicial notice of the fact that BoA has accepted more than $45 billion in federal "bailout” funds as a result of, among other things, its deficient credit policies.
. BoA also cites to several cases in which the courts did not analyze their reasons for protecting particular information, e.g., Brookdale Univ. Hosp. & Med.. Center, Inc. v. Health Ins. Plan of Greater N.Y., 07-CV-1471 (RRM)(LB),
. Five of the 23 miscellaneous documents are completely in Italian, and BoA has not provided an English translation of the documents. In addition, BoA has not responded to Lead Plaintiffs' challenge with an explanation for why nine of the 23 documents should remain under seal: BoA failed to include the documents in its spreadsheet, though Lead Plaintiffs did challenge their continued confidential treatment (Compare Lead Plaintiffs’ Spreadsheet, annexed as Ex. A to Pis.' Jan. 2009 Letter, at 35-38, with BoA List of Documents by Confidential Category, annexed as Ex. B to BoA Feb. 2009 Letter, at 16-18). As a result, BoA has not shown good cause, or any cause, to keep any of these 14 documents under seal.
. The seven documents in question are: McCormick Dep. 1456:1-1457:19 & 5943:13-5949:13, Caldwell Dep. 212:12-213:25, Dharan 30(b)(6) Dep. 1862:1-17, 1941:3-10 & 1950:7-1951:2, and DX 20195.
