Salas

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

GLADYS C. SALAS, Case No. 22-cv-04574-RFL (AGT)

Plaintiff,

DISCOVERY ORDER

v. Re: Dkt. No. 62 UNITED AIRLINES, INC., et al., Defendants.

United has not established that the attorney-client privilege applies to the disputed email, UnitedSales_001325, a copy of which United submitted for in camera review.1 Nothing in the email suggests that the sender, plaintiff’s United supervisor, was seek- ing legal advice from any of the five email recipients, only one of whom was a United in- house lawyer. Plaintiff’s supervisor forwarded a doctor’s note plaintiff had provided. Plain- tiff’s supervisor didn’t ask the email recipients to respond, let alone provide legal advice. Even if the five recipients were part of United’s Disciplinary Review Panel, as United asserts, see dkt. 62 at 4, that doesn’t establish that the email was privileged. Despite the presence of a lawyer on the panel, the panel may have been performing a business function: deciding whether to terminate plaintiff for her alleged misuse of sick leave. To be sure, the panel may have instead, or additionally, had a legal function. But when a…