In the headline-grabbing $155 million dollar sex discrimination lawsuit, a Manhattan federal judge has ordered six lawyers with senior positions at the prestigious law firm Chadbourne & Parke LLP to search their personal email accounts for documents related to the discrimination suit.
The court ordered the search over Defendants’ objections, who called the request a ‘fishing expedition,’ stating that they did not believe a search would result in any responsive information, although conceding that they had not done any “test searches.” Judge Moses disagreed, noting that in her experience in “Big Law,” personal and work communication often overlapped. The judge also noted that the court had already deemed at least one of the plaintiffs’ personal email accounts discoverable, stating that “[w]hat’s good for the goose is good for the gander.” Defendants have until December 15th to produce any responsive records.