§ 1(a) Motions and Letters. Except as otherwise provided below, communications with the Court (other than during conferences, hearings, or trials) should be by motion or letter, filed on ECF. Except for confidential settlement letters, discussed in § 1(e) below, or as specifically directed by chambers in advance, the Court will not accept letters or motions from counseled parties by email, fax, telephone, or hard copy mailed or delivered directly to chambers. § 1(g) Hand Delivery. Permitted hand deliveries may be left with a Court Security Officer at the Worth Street entrance of the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse. If the matter requires the Court's immediate attention, ask the Court Security Officer to notify chambers that an urgent delivery has arrived. § 1(h) Letters or Emails between Parties. Copies of correspondence between the parties or their counsel should not be copied to chambers, or filed on ECF, except as exhibits to otherwise properly-filed documents. § 1(i) Telephone Calls. For scheduling and calendar matters, counsel may call chambers at 212-805-0228. Otherwise, telephone calls are permitted only for urgent matters requiring immediate attention or to obtain permission to submit a document other than via ECF.

§ 3. Sealing Motions. § 3(a) File the Letter-Motion Electronically. Filing under seal requires permission of the Court, which may be sought via letter-motion. The letter-motion requesting approval of sealed or redacted filings and the document(s) as to which sealing is requested must be filed electronically on ECF in compliance with standing order No. 19-mc-00583 and § 6 of the SDNY ECF Rules & Instructions. § 3(b) File the Letter-Motion in Public View. The letter-motion must be filed in public view, must explain the particular reasons for seeking to file that information under seal, and should not include any of the confidential information sought to be filed under seal. Supporting papers must be separately filed electronically and may be filed under seal or redacted only to the extent necessary to safeguard information sought to be filed under seal. § 3(c) File the Document as to which Sealing is Required under Seal. The document(s) as to which sealing is requested must be contemporaneously filed under seal on ECF and electronically related to the letter-motion. The summary docket text, but not the sealed document, will be open to public inspection and therefore should not include confidential information sought to be filed under seal. § 3(d) Redacted Documents. If the letter-motion seeks approval to redact information from a document that is otherwise to be publicly filed, the filing party shall: (a) publicly file the document in the proposed redacted form, and (b) electronically file under seal a copy of the unredacted document, with the proposed redactions highlighted. Both documents must be electronically filed through the ECF system and related to the motion. § 3(e) Lugosch Standard. To be approved, any sealing or redaction of a court filing must be narrowly tailored to serve the purpose that requires the sealing or redaction and must be otherwise consistent with the presumption in favor of public access to judicial documents described in Lugosch v. Pyramid Co. of Onondaga, 435 F.3d 110, 119-20 (2d Cir. 2006). The parties are cautioned that the designation of documents as "confidential" for discovery purposes does not, without more, justify a sealing or redaction order. If a sealing or redaction request is based on another party's designation of documents or information as "confidential," or if any party opposes the sealing or redaction request, that other party shall respond to the requesting party's letter-motion via ECF on the schedule set forth above in § 2(e). § 3(f) Meet and Confer. The party seeking leave to file sealed or redacted materials should meet and confer with any opposing parties (or third parties seeking confidential treatment of the information) in advance to narrow the scope of the request. When a party seeks leave to file sealed or redacted materials on the ground that an opposing party or third party has requested it, that party shall notify the opposing party or third party that it must file, within three court days, a letter explaining the need to seal or redact the materials. § 3(g) No Leave Required to Comply with Fed. R. Civ. P. 5.2. Notwithstanding the foregoing, no leave is required to redact all but the last four digits of an individual's social-security number or taxpayer-identification number, the day and month of an individual's birth, the name of an individual known to be a minor, or all but the last four digits of a financial-account number, consistent with Fed. R. Civ. P. 5.2.

§ 2(b) Discovery Motions. No discovery dispute will be heard unless the moving party (including a non-party seeking relief from a subpoena) has first conferred in good faith and in "real time" (e.g., in person or by telephone) with the adverse party or parties, in an attempt to resolve the dispute. An exchange of letters or email alone does not satisfy this requirement. Counsel must respond promptly and in good faith to a request from another party to meet and confer in accordance with this paragraph. If the parties have met and conferred but cannot resolve their dispute, the moving party must request a discovery conference with the Court, by letter-motion, as required by Local Civ. R. 37.2. The letter-motion must succinctly set forth the basis of the dispute and the relief sought, certify that the required good faith conference took place, and state: (1) the date, time, and duration of the parties' conference; (2) the names of the counsel who participated; and (3) the position of any relevant adverse party as to each contested issue. None of these requirements may be satisfied by attaching copies of correspondence between counsel. In addition, the letter-motion must set forth verbatim each discovery request and response in contention in accordance with Local Civ. R. 37.1 and 5.1. This requirement may be satisfied by attaching the relevant request(s) and response(s) to the letter-motion. Please do not submit an entire set of discovery requests and responses if only a few are in dispute.