Tecspec LLC v. Donnolo

Background

All parties, through counsel, requested a protective order under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c) for nonpublic and confidential information expected to be exchanged during discovery. The parties identified possible confidential proprietary, trade-secret, commercial, financial, personal, and business information. The court found good cause to issue a tailored order for the pretrial phase of the case.

Confidentiality Categories and Access

The order covers discovery material designated either “Confidential” or “Highly Confidential—Attorneys’ Eyes Only.” A producing person may designate only information whose disclosure is restricted by law or would harm business, commercial, financial, or personal interests, or the interests of a third party owed a confidentiality duty. Listed examples include previously undisclosed financial information; ownership or control information about a nonpublic company; business plans, marketing plans, and technical information about heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning units and related equipment; and personal or intimate information.

Confidential material may be disclosed to specified recipients, including the parties, counsel, insurers and their counsel, litigation-support providers, mediators or arbitrators, certain document recipients, potential witnesses, experts, deposition stenographers, and the court. Several categories of recipients must first receive the order and sign a nondisclosure agreement. Attorneys’-eyes-only material is subject to narrower access, generally limited to counsel, specified service providers, mediators or arbitrators, qualifying outside experts, stenographers, and the court.

The order separately provides that Michael Donnolo, Joshua Donnolo, and John Michael Long may access and review Tecspec business records that they had accessed, reviewed, or authored while employed at Tecspec, even if those records are designated attorneys’-eyes-only material.

Use, Challenges, and Court Filings

Protected discovery material may be used only to prosecute or defend this action and any appeals. It may not be used for business, commercial, competitive, or other litigation purposes. The order does not waive objections to discovery, privilege, work-product protection, claims, or defenses, and it does not decide whether any evidence is admissible at trial.

A party may object in writing to a confidentiality designation before trial. If the parties cannot resolve the dispute, counsel must bring it to the court under the court’s individual rules. The order also sets procedures for information subject to a third party’s confidentiality obligations and for responding to subpoenas or other compulsory process.

A confidentiality designation does not automatically authorize filing material under seal. A party seeking to file protected material must submit a letter-motion explaining the basis for sealing, and must publicly file a redacted version while filing the unredacted version under seal with proposed redactions highlighted. The court retains discretion over confidential treatment and states that it is unlikely to seal or otherwise protect material introduced at trial.

Personally Identifying and Privileged Information

Recipients must securely maintain personally identifying information exchanged in discovery, such as Social Security numbers, financial account numbers, passwords, and information that could be used for identity theft. A recipient experiencing a data breach must promptly notify the producing person and cooperate in addressing it.

An inadvertent disclosure of attorney-client privileged or attorney work-product material does not waive the protection. After a claim of inadvertent disclosure, the receiving party generally must return or destroy the material within five business days and provide counsel’s certification. The disclosing party must then provide a privilege log, and the receiving party may ask the court to order production. The disclosing party retains the burden of proving that the material is privileged or protected.

Duration and Disposition

The protective order continues after the litigation ends. Within 30 days after final disposition, recipients must return or, with the producing person’s permission, destroy protected discovery material and certify that they have not retained copies or other reproductions. Attorneys specifically retained for the case may keep archival copies of specified case materials, but those copies remain subject to the order.

The order states that willful violations may result in contempt of court and that the court retains jurisdiction to enforce the order and impose contempt sanctions. Judge Robert W. Lehrburger entered the protective order on December 2, 2025.