Savills Studley, Inc. v. Elkin

          ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF'S MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION

          CHRISTINE M. ARGUELLO UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

         This matter is before the Court on Plaintiff Savills Studley, Inc.'s Motion for Preliminary Injunction, in which Plaintiff seeks to preclude its former employee, Defendant Ashley Elkin, from using or disclosing Plaintiff's Company Information, Work Product, and trade secrets. (Doc. ## 2, 2-1.) Plaintiff also requests that Defendant immediately return all Company Information, Work Product, and property Defendant took from Plaintiff without its consent. (Id.)

         On November 29, 2018, the Court conducted a five-hour hearing on Plaintiff's Motion. See (Doc. # 23.) The Court, after considering the Motion and evidence presented at the hearing, is of the opinion that the Motion should be GRANTED based on the findings of fact and conclusions of law the Court read into the record at the hearing. See (id.)

         Accordingly, the Court ORDERS as follows:

         1. Defendant must at all times maintain the confidentiality of all Company Information and Work Product, as defined in her Employment Agreement;

         2. Defendant shall not use or disclose Plaintiff's Company Information or Work Product, including but not limited to the documents and information she uploaded or exported from her Company-issued desktop computer, any Company network, and/or the Savills-Apto Client Database, and any information derived therefrom;

         3. Defendant shall not use, disclose, possess, or benefit from, either directly or indirectly, any of Plaintiff's confidential, proprietary, or trade secret information;

         4. Defendant must immediately return, within three (3) days of the date of this Order, to Plaintiff all of Plaintiff's Company Information, Work Product, and property-whether in hard copy or in electronic form-in her possession; and

         5. No. later than December 4, 2018, Defendant must also provide Plaintiff's designated forensic investigator, Setec Investigations, with access to any and all of her Personal Dropbox accounts, her personal computer, her personal mobile devices, and any of her personal data storage devices (including, but not limited to, any CD, DVD, or USB drive) (collectively, “Defendant's Data Storage Devices”) sufficient to permit Plaintiff's designated forensic investigator to perform the requisite forensic imaging and investigation of Defendant's Data Storage Devices. To ensure the confidentiality and privacy of any privileged and confidential personal and attorney-client communications on Defendant's Data Storage Devices, and to establish the protocol for such forensic imaging and investigation, Plaintiff, Setec Investigations, and Defendant have agreed to and shall follow the following Protocol for Computer Forensic Inspection:

i. The terms of the Inspection Protocol are binding and take the place of any previously proposed protocols.

ii. Forensic inspector: To effectuate the terms of this Order, Setec Investigations (“Setec”) will conduct a forensic inspection of Defendant Ashley Elkin's Data Storage Devices.

iii. Inspection and Production Guidelines: At the offices of Defendants counsel, at a time agreed upon by Plaintiff and Defendant, the forensic inspection will begin with the forensic imaging and acquisition and/or inspection of the Data Storage Devices. Plaintiffs counsel, Plaintiff, Defendant's counsel, Defendant, and Defendant's forensic expert will be present.

         Upon completion of the forensic imaging and acquisition process, Setec will perform subsequent analysis activities, at Setec's offices, on the acquired data pertaining to the following two categories:

. Non-Content Findings - Analysis to identify any potential location where Plaintiff's data may reside, as well as the identification of any efforts to delete or obfuscate ...