Guidehouse LLP v. Shah
- Vyskocil
- 1:19-cv-09470
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Guidehouse LLP v. Shah, Judge Vyskocil granted redaction and sealing of confidential payment information in an exhibit, subject to public disclosure if admitted at trial.
Guidehouse LLP, Rizwan Shah, and non-party PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP; the order also affects public access to Exhibit A.
What happened
In Guidehouse LLP v. Shah, Guidehouse asked the court to redact portions of a publicly filed exhibit containing information about payments Rizwan Shah received after leaving a PricewaterhouseCoopers partnership to join Guidehouse. Shah consented to the request.
Guidehouse argued that the information had competitive value to Guidehouse and PricewaterhouseCoopers and that Shah had a personal privacy interest in his finances. It asked to file an unredacted version of the exhibit under seal.
Judge Vyskocil granted Guidehouse’s request. The court allowed the public copy of the exhibit to be redacted and required the unredacted version to remain under seal, but stated that any evidence admitted at trial would become part of the public record and could not remain sealed.
The detailed version
- Guidehouse LLP v. Shah · No. 1:19-cv-09470
- Vyskocil
- June 14, 2021
Background
Guidehouse LLP asked the court to permit redactions to the publicly filed copy of Exhibit A to the declaration of Stephen L. Sheinfeld supporting Guidehouse’s opposition to Shah’s motion in limine. Guidehouse also asked to file an unredacted version of the exhibit under seal. The request was made with Shah’s consent.
The exhibit contained an email from Shah to Guidehouse’s chief executive officer, Scott McIntyre. According to the request, the email included confidential information about monetary payments Shah received after withdrawing from the PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP partnership to join Guidehouse. Guidehouse asserted that the information had competitive value to Guidehouse and PricewaterhouseCoopers and could harm their business interests if publicly disclosed. It also asserted that Shah had a privacy interest in keeping his personal financial information confidential.
Court’s Ruling
The court granted Guidehouse’s request to redact the publicly filed copy of Exhibit A and maintain the unredacted version under seal. The court stated that any evidence admitted at trial would be part of the public record and could not be sealed. Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil also requested that the Clerk terminate the motion at docket entry 69.
This order addressed access to and sealing of court records; it did not decide the underlying claims or defenses in the case.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.