On November 20, US District Judge Paul G. Gardephe of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a decision with potentially significant consequences for attorneys conducting internal investigations and parties seeking to obtain (or shield) disclosure of witness interview notes memorializing such investigations. Gruss v. Zwirn, 09-CV-6441 (S.D.N.Y., November 20, 2013). Judge Gardephe’s ruling, issued in a defamation action brought against a hedge fund by a former employee, followed a request for clarification after an earlier ruling in July. Through the two rulings, Judge Gardephe ordered production, for in camera inspection by the court, of interview notes prepared by outside counsel for the fund pertaining to 21 witnesses whose statements were obtained in the course of an internal investigation. The witness statements were voluntarily disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission, in summary form, through PowerPoint presentations. Judge Gardephe found that the fund’s voluntary production of the PowerPoint presentations to the SEC containing summaries of what the 21 witnesses told outside counsel during the internal investigation constituted a subject-matter waiver warranting the production of the underlying witness interview notes, subject to redaction of opinion work product material (which plaintiff in the defamation action did not seek).
