Contract analysis

1. My name is Nadia Petrov. I am an attorney licensed to practice law in the State of California, State Bar Number 318945. I am an associate at the law firm of Calderwood & Harkness LLP, located at 777 South Flower Street, Suite 4200, Los Angeles, California 90017. I am one of the attorneys of record for Defendant and Cross-Complainant Aurelius Media Americas Inc. ("AMA") in this action. I make this declaration based

2. On February 20, 2023, AMA served its First Set of Requests for Production of Documents, Nos. 1 through 28 (the "Requests for Production"), on Plaintiff Gavin Aldrich ("Aldrich"). The Requests for Production were served electronically by email on Julia Nazarian of Whitfield & Associates, located at 9465 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 320, Beverly Hills, California 90212, counsel of record for Aldrich in this action. Ser

3. On March 30, 2023, Aldrich served his responses and objections to AMA's Requests for Production. These responses were served eight days beyond the original statutory deadline, following a ten-day extension that the parties agreed to by written stipulation executed on March 14, 2023. A true and correct copy of Aldrich's responses and objections to AMA's Requests for Production is attached hereto as Exhibit B and in

4. Upon review of Aldrich's responses and objections, AMA identified material deficiencies in the responses to Request for Production Nos. 8, 11, 12, 13, and 14. Each deficiency is described in detail below: Request for Production No. 8: This request seeks all communications between Aldrich and Halcyon Creek Productions LLC, Nina Castellanos, or any agent thereof, relating to any subject matter, for the period Januar

5. On April 5, 2023, I participated in a telephonic meet-and-confer conference with Julia Nazarian of Whitfield & Associates, counsel for Aldrich, regarding the deficiencies identified in Aldrich's responses to Request for Production Nos. 8, 11, 12, 13, and 14. The call lasted approximately forty-five minutes. During the call, Ms. Nazarian stated that Aldrich's position with respect to the disputed requests was as fo

6. On April 7, 2023, I sent a follow-up meet-and-confer letter to Ms. Nazarian, setting forth AMA's position in writing and memorializing the substance of our April 5, 2023 telephonic conference. In the letter, I requested that Aldrich serve supplemental responses to Request for Production Nos. 8, 11, 12, 13, and 14 no later than April 12, 2023. The letter detailed each deficiency and provided citations to the applic

7. On April 11, 2023, Ms. Nazarian responded to my April 7, 2023 letter by email. In her response, Ms. Nazarian declined to supplement Aldrich's responses to any of the five disputed requests. Ms. Nazarian reiterated Aldrich's position that the documents sought are private and irrelevant, and she stated that Aldrich would oppose any motion to compel further responses. Ms. Nazarian did not provide any explanation for

8. AMA's IT security team, under the direction of Gregory Tanaka, Vice President of Legal & Compliance, conducted a data loss prevention ("DLP") audit beginning in August 2022. The DLP audit was initiated after AMA's internal compliance team identified anomalous data transfer activity on Aldrich's AMA-issued laptop and AMA email account. As part of this audit, Mr. Tanaka's team conducted a forensic review of Aldrich'

9. In addition to the AMA-to-Halcyon Creek emails described in paragraph 8, Aldrich has not produced any communications from his personal email account (galdrich.private@Northgate Software.com) to Halcyon Creek Productions LLC or to Nina Castellanos. AMA's forensic evidence, as described above, indicates that Aldrich forwarded approximately 340 emails from his AMA account to galdrich.private@Northgate Software.com ov

10. The documents withheld by Aldrich are directly relevant to each of AMA's four cross-claims, as follows: Breach of Employment Agreement (Section 9.4 — Confidentiality): Section 9.4 of the Employment Agreement between AMA and Aldrich, executed on March 15, 2019, provides that Aldrich shall not, during the term of his employment or at any time thereafter, directly or indirectly disclose, transmit, or make available

11. The Stipulated Protective Order entered by the Court on February 15, 2023, in the related class action (Aldrich et al. v. Aurelius Media Americas Inc., Case No. 22STCV38214), and applicable by stipulation of the parties to discovery in this action, provides two tiers of confidentiality designation: (a) CONFIDENTIAL: Materials designated as CONFIDENTIAL may be disclosed only to the parties, their counsel, experts

12. The following exhibits are attached to this declaration and are incorporated herein by reference: Exhibit A: AMA's First Set of Requests for Production of Documents, Nos. 1 through 28, served on Plaintiff Gavin Aldrich on February 20, 2023. Exhibit B: Aldrich's Responses and Objections to AMA's First Set of Requests for Production of Documents, served on AMA on March 30, 2023. Exhibit C: Meet-and-confer letter fr