Gerber v. Twitter
- Kandis Westmore
- 4:23-cv-00186
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Gerber v. Twitter, Judge Westmore granted Twitter leave to seek reconsideration of a discovery order and conditionally stayed that order.
Twitter, Inc. and the plaintiffs are affected because the order allows Twitter to seek reconsideration of the earlier discovery ruling and conditionally stays that ruling if Twitter meets the filing deadline.
What happened
In Stephen Gerber, et al. v. Twitter, Inc., et al., Twitter asked for permission to seek reconsideration of an earlier discovery order concerning documents listed on its privilege log.
Twitter argued that the documents were created to provide legal advice about anticipated litigation, regulatory obligations, and regulatory proceedings. The earlier order found that attorney-client and work-product protections did not apply because the documents appeared to concern business requirements.
Judge Kandis Westmore granted Twitter permission to file a motion for reconsideration, limited the brief to 10 pages, and set deadlines for the parties’ filings and a hearing. If Twitter files by December 15, 2025, the earlier discovery order will be treated as stayed until the reconsideration motion is resolved.
The detailed version
- Gerber v. Twitter · No. 4:23-cv-00186
- Kandis Westmore
- Dec. 1, 2025
Background
Twitter moved for leave to file a motion asking the court to reconsider its October 16, 2025 discovery order. That earlier order addressed documents on Twitter’s privilege log and found that attorney-client privilege and work-product protection did not apply. The court had concluded that the documents would have been created for business requirements even if no litigation had been anticipated.
Twitter argued that advising it about regulatory obligations constituted legal advice rather than business advice. The court stated that it could benefit from additional briefing focused on that issue. It also reminded Twitter that California law governs the attorney-client privilege issue and that a report prepared in the usual course of business for a purpose independent of possible legal consultation is not privileged merely because it was later sent to counsel.
Ruling
The court granted Twitter’s motion for leave to file a motion for reconsideration. Twitter may file a brief of no more than 10 pages focusing on whether advice about regulatory obligations was legal advice, as opposed to business advice. The court directed Twitter not to focus on the Monteiro declaration, which it described as merely repeating the stated purposes of the privilege-log documents.
Twitter must file its motion by December 15, 2025. The plaintiffs may file an opposition of no more than 10 pages by January 8, 2026, and Twitter may file a reply of no more than 7 pages by January 15, 2026. The court set a hearing for February 5, 2026, at 1:30 p.m. If Twitter files its motion by December 15, the October 16 discovery order will be deemed stayed until the reconsideration motion is resolved. Judge Kandis Westmore did not decide the reconsideration motion in this order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.