Gawel

I. BACKGROUND

Defendant hired an outside law firm, Loeb & Loeb, LLP (“Loeb”), to 25 investigate an anonymous hotline complaint about misconduct that involved 26 Plaintiff and ultimately led to her termination. Initially, this was the sole reason for 27 Defendant’s retention of Loeb. In October 2019, Loeb interviewed Sandra Chavez, 28 the main employee at the center of the anonymous complaint, as well as several other employees, including Joe Kelly, Chad McGuckin, JJ Roth, Rikki Martin, and 2 Plaintiff. On November 7, 2019, Defendant terminated Plaintiff based on the 3 investigation’s findings that she had committed compliance violations. 4 At certain points during the investigation, Defendant also sought Loeb’s 5 advice and counsel, and Loeb provided Defendant with its attorneys’ impressions 6 and analyses regarding matters tangentially related to the investigation. For example, 7 Defendant sought advice regarding messaging that Defendant should use during the 8 pendency of the investigation. Further, Defendant also sought Loeb’s input on how 9 Defendant could address or remedy the violations the investigation uncovered. 10

II. …