Contract analysis

I. Executive Summary This memorandum provides the monthly status report for the month of March 2023 in connection with the above-referenced matter. March 2023 was the first full month of active fact discovery following the entry of the Case Management Order ("CMO") by the Honorable Margaret T. Calloway, United States District Judge, Southern District of New York, on February 17, 2023. The month was marked by signific

1. Stonefield's Affirmative discovery Served. On March 6, 2023, Stonefield served on Vantor its First Set of Interrogatories (25 interrogatories), its First Request for Production of Documents (38 requests), and its First Set of Requests for Admission (30 requests). These written discovery requests were directed to Vantor through its counsel of record, Caldwell Royce & Shapiro LLP. The discovery was carefully drafted

2. Vantor's discovery Received. On March 20, 2023, Vantor served on Stonefield its First Set of Interrogatories and its First Request for Production of Documents, each through Caldwell Royce & Shapiro LLP. Stonefield's responses are due on or about April 19, 2023. The Calderwood & Harkness team is actively reviewing these requests and preparing substantive responses, including objections where certain requests appear

3. Document Collection Substantially Complete. Internal document collection from the five identified Stonefield custodians — Janet Kirkwood, Raymond Hess, Carlos Medina, Tobias Wren, and Priya Ramachandran — is substantially complete. All collections (including email from Ashgrove Software, shared drive content, and contract management system records) have been transferred to our e-discovery vendor, Pinnacle Forensic

4. Document Review Commenced. As of the last week of March, the Calderwood & Harkness document review team has commenced first-pass review of the collected and processed documents. Approximately 186,000 pages of documents have been processed, and the estimated universe for first-pass review (after de-duplication and filtering) is approximately 50,000 documents. Our target completion date for first-pass review and ini

II. Current Posture of the Case A. Pleadings Status — Complete The pleadings phase of this litigation is fully complete. Stonefield's Answer, Affirmative Defenses, and Counterclaim were filed on January 13, 2023. Specifically, Stonefield's Answer asserted fourteen (14) affirmative defenses in response to Vantor's Amended Complaint and included a Counterclaim seeking a declaratory judgment that Stonefield's terminatio

III. Discovery — Propounded by Stonefield A. First Set of Interrogatories (Served March 6, 2023) On March 6, 2023, Stonefield served its First Set of Interrogatories on Vantor, directed to Vantor Holdings Corp. through its counsel of record, Caldwell Royce & Shapiro LLP. The set comprises twenty-five (25) interrogatories, which is the maximum permitted under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 33(a)(1) absent stipulation

IV. Discovery — Received from Vantor A. First Set of Interrogatories (Received March 20, 2023) On March 20, 2023, Vantor served its First Set of Interrogatories on Stonefield through its counsel of record, Caldwell Royce & Shapiro LLP. The interrogatories were transmitted by Harrison Caldwell and Jason Whitford of that firm. Stonefield's responses are due within thirty (30) days of service, placing the response deadl

V. Document Collection and Processing A. Stonefield Custodial Collections Document collection from the identified Stonefield custodians is substantially complete as of the end of March 2023. The following custodians have been the subjects of collection:

1. Janet Kirkwood — Vice President, Carrier Relations. Ms. Kirkwood is a key fact witness in this litigation, as she was the primary Stonefield executive who oversaw the day-to-day relationship with Vantor and VTS, monitored VTS's performance against the contractual SLOs, and was directly involved in the decisions leading to the issuance of the Cure Notice and the subsequent termination. Her collection includes email

2. Raymond Hess — Director, Contract Compliance. Mr. Hess was responsible for monitoring carrier compliance with contractual service levels and was the author of the Cure Notice dated January 18, 2022. He also co-signed the termination letter dated March 4, 2022 (jointly with you). His collection includes email, compliance monitoring reports, and contract management system records.

3. Carlos Medina — Senior Vice President, Operations. Mr. Medina oversees Stonefield's freight operations nationally and was involved in operational decisions relating to the VTS relationship, including the engagement of alternative carriers. His collection includes email and shared drive files.

4. Tobias Wren — General Counsel. Your collection has been limited to documents directly relating to the Vantor/VTS matter, including legal correspondence, internal memoranda regarding the termination decision, and board-related materials. As we have discussed, communications between you and outside counsel (including Calderwood & Harkness and Ashford Meridian LLP) are being withheld as privileged.

5. Priya Ramachandran — Chief Financial Officer. Ms. Ramachandran's collection is the most limited in scope and consists primarily of financial documents and board-related materials that reference or relate to the Vantor/VTS relationship or this litigation. All collections include email sourced from Ashgrove Software, documents from shared network drives, and relevant records from Stonefield's contract management sys

VI. Clawback / FRE 502(d) Stipulation The parties' stipulation and proposed order pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 502(d) was jointly prepared by Patrick Gallagher and Jason Whitford of Caldwell Royce & Shapiro LLP and was submitted to the Court on February 15, 2023. The stipulation provides, in substance, that the inadvertent production of documents or information protected by the attorney-client privilege or th

VII. Expert Retention Kensington Analytics Group LLC ("KAG") was retained on October 28, 2022 as Stonefield's damages and economics rebuttal expert. The engagement is led by Dr. Evelyn Rosser, Managing Director, and Michael Chung, Senior Analyst. KAG is a well-regarded economic consulting firm with extensive experience in transportation and logistics industry disputes, and Dr. Rosser has been qualified as an expert i

VIII. Other Case Management Items A. No Court Activity in March 2023 There were no hearings, conferences, or orders issued by the Court during the reporting period of March 2023. The docket reflects no activity beyond the previously reported entry of the Case Management Order on February 17, 2023. The next anticipated court interaction will likely be a discovery conference in the event that disputes arise regarding t

IX. Budget and Staffing A. Fees and Disbursements The Quarterly Billing Summary for Q1 2023 (covering January through March 2023) is being prepared by Linda Osei, Billing Partner, and will be delivered to you by mid-April 2023. The summary will include a detailed breakdown of fees by timekeeper, a summary of disbursements (including Pinnacle Forensics costs), and a comparison of actual spending against the litigation

X. Upcoming Activities — April 2023 The following activities are planned for April 2023:

1. Responses to Vantor's Interrogatories. Finalize and serve Stonefield's Responses to Vantor's First Set of Interrogatories. Target service date: April 14, 2023.

2. Responses to Vantor's Document Requests. Finalize and serve Stonefield's Responses and Objections to Vantor's First Request for Production of Documents. Target service date: April 14, 2023.

3. Initial Document Production. Complete first-pass document review and produce Stonefield's initial document production to Vantor. The production is expected to comprise approximately 42,387 documents (approximately 186,000 pages), bearing Bates numbers SLG-000001 through SLG-042387. The production will be accompanied by a privilege log identifying all documents withheld on the basis of attorney-client privilege or

4. Responses to Vantor's Requests for Admission. Finalize and serve Stonefield's Responses to Vantor's Requests for Admission. Target service date: April 14, 2023. (Note: Vantor's Requests for Admission were not served on March 20; if Vantor serves RFAs in April, response deadlines will be calculated from the date of service.)

5. Analysis of Vantor's discovery Responses. Receive and begin substantive analysis of Vantor's responses to Stonefield's First Set of Interrogatories, First Request for Production of Documents, and First Set of Requests for Admission. Vantor's responses are expected on or about April 5, 2023. We will evaluate the completeness and sufficiency of Vantor's responses and will meet and confer with Vantor's counsel to add

6. TAR 2.0 Model Refinement. Continue training and validation of the TAR 2.0 model. David Moretti is tracking recall rate metrics and will report on model performance and defensibility. The TAR model will be particularly important for the efficient review of Vantor's anticipated document production.

7. Deposition Planning. Begin preliminary planning for deposition scheduling, which we anticipate will take place during the summer of 2023. Key fact witnesses anticipated for deposition on the Vantor side include senior executives of VTS involved in fleet deployment decisions, the VTS account manager for the Stonefield relationship, and Vantor Holdings personnel involved in the mitigation strategy. Key Stonefield wi

XI. Risk Factors and Strategic Notes We take this opportunity to reiterate the two principal litigation risk factors identified in the Preliminary Case Assessment dated September 9, 2022 and the Defense Strategy Outline dated September 26, 2022. While the overall strength of Stonefield's defense remains strong, these risk factors require ongoing monitoring and management: Risk Factor 1 — The Kirkwood Email (September

XII. Conclusion and Next Report The case is proceeding on schedule within the framework established by the Case Management Order. Fact discovery is well underway, with both sides having served their initial written discovery requests and document collection and processing substantially complete on the Stonefield side. The Calderwood & Harkness team is fully engaged in the preparation of Stonefield's discovery respons