Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 1 of 24 Page ID #:1581 1 BERNSTEIN LITOWITZ BERGER & GROSSMANN LLP 2 Jonathan D. Uslaner (Bar No. 256898) jonathanu@blbglaw.com 3 2121 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 2575 Los Angeles, CA 90067 4 Tel: (310) 819-3481 5 Counsel for Lead Plaintiff Public Employees’ Retirement System of 6 Mississippi, and Lead Counsel for the Class 7 COHEN MILSTEIN SELLERS 8 & TOLL PLLC Laura H. Posner (pro hac vice) 9 lposner@cohenmilstein.com 88 Pine Street, 14th Floor 10 New York, NY 10005 Tel.: (212) 220-2925 11 Counsel for Lead Plaintiff Arkansas Public 12 Employees’ Retirement System, and Lead Counsel for the Class 13 [Additional counsel in signature block] 14 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 15 CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 16 In re The Trade Desk, Inc. Securities Case No. 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM 17 Litigation STIPULATED ORDER 18 ESTABLISHING THE PROTOCOL FOR THE PRODUCTION OF 19 DOCUMENTS AND ELECTRONICALLY STORED 20 INFORMATION (“ESI”) AND PRIVILEGE LOGS 21 Magistrate Judge: Douglas F. McCormick 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 2 of 24 Page ID #:1582 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 Page 3 I. PURPOSE ........................................................................................................ 1 4 II. COOPERATION ............................................................................................. 2 5 III. DEFINITIONS ................................................................................................ 2 6 IV. SEARCH.......................................................................................................... 2 7 A. Search Methodology.............................................................................. 2 8 V. PRIORITIZATION AND DISCLOSURES OF CUSTODIAL AND NON-CUSTODIAL 9 SOURCES ....................................................................................................... 3 10 VI. PRODUCTION................................................................................................ 4 11 A. Each Production Will Have Four Main Components ........................................................................................... 4 12 B. Production of Hard-Copy Documents ................................................... 4 13 C. Production of Documents ...................................................................... 5 14 D. Production of Databases and Other 15 Structured Data .................................................................................... 10 16 E. Production of Transcripts .................................................................... 10 17 F. Processing of Third-Party Documents ................................................ 10 18 G. Miscellaneous Provisions .................................................................... 11 19 VII. ASSERTIONS OF PRIVILEGE ................................................................... 12 20 VIII. MODIFICATION .......................................................................................... 14 21 A. Modification by Agreement ................................................................ 14 22 B. Modification by Court Order............................................................... 14 23 24 25 26 27 28 ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL i CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 3 of 24 Page ID #:1583 1 1. Pursuant to the agreement reached between Lead Plaintiff and 2 Defendants herein, this Court adopts and orders the following Protocol relating to 3 the Production of Documents and Electronically Stored Information (“ESI”)1 in this 4 Action. “Lead Plaintiff” shall mean Court-appointed Lead Plaintiff Arkansas Public 5 Employees’ Retirement System and Public Employees’ Retirement System of 6 Mississippi. “Defendants” shall mean The Trade Desk, Inc. (“The Trade Desk”), Jeff 7 Green, Laura Schenkein, and Samantha Jacobson (“Executive Defendants,” and 8 together with The Trade Desk, collectively, “Defendants”). Lead Plaintiff and 9 Defendants are collectively referred to as the “Parties.” The failure of this Protocol 10 to address any issue is without prejudice to any position that a Party may take on 11 that issue. 12 I. PURPOSE 13 2. This Stipulated Protocol for Producing Documents and ESI (the “ESI 14 Protocol”) will govern the Production of Documents by the Parties in the above- 15 captioned litigation and will serve as a supplement to the Federal Rules of Civil 16 Procedure, this Court’s Local Rules, and any other applicable orders and rules. 17 Notwithstanding anything else herein, this ESI Protocol does not require any Party 18 to search for or produce any ESI or Documents that are subject to an objection. 19 20 1 For the avoidance of doubt, “ESI” shall be interpreted consistent with Federal Rule 21 of Civil Procedure 34 and the Central District of California’s Civil Local Rules, and 22 includes, without limitation, information in electronic messaging and collaboration 23 tools and systems, including originals and nonidentical copies that are reasonably accessible and stored on servers, endpoints, mobile devices, removable media, and 24 cloud services. Systems covered by this definition include Slack, Zoom Team 25 Chat/Zoom Chat, Google Chat, Jabber, Webex Teams/Messaging, Apple Messages (iMessage, SMS, MMS), WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Discord, any other text 26 messaging systems, any other internal electronic communication systems, and any 27 other cross-platform messaging tools used for business purposes. For the further avoidance of doubt, the enumeration of types of ESI in this footnote does not 28 establish or imply that production of any such ESI is warranted in this Action. ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL 1 CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 4 of 24 Page ID #:1584 1 3. The ESI Protocol shall be attached to any subpoena issued to any non- 2 party in this Action. 3 II. COOPERATION 4 4. The Parties are aware of the importance the Court places on cooperation 5 and commit to cooperate in good faith throughout the matter consistent with Federal 6 Rules of Civil Procedure and this Court’s Local Rules. Should any party 7 subsequently determine in good faith that it cannot proceed as required by this Order 8 or that the Order requires modification, the Parties will meet and confer to resolve 9 any dispute before seeking Court intervention. 10 III. DEFINITIONS 11 5. “Action” means this litigation, In re The Trade Desk, Inc. Securities 12 Litigation, Case No. 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM. 13 6. “Document(s)” means documents, tangible things, and electronically 14 stored information, as defined by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 34(a)(1)(A). 15 7. “Hard-Copy Documents” means Documents that existed in physical 16 paper format prior to production. 17 8. “Issuing Party” means any Party (defined below) that issues a non-party 18 subpoena. 19 9. “Producing Party” means the Party producing the Documents. 20 10. “Requesting Party” means the Party requesting the Documents. 21 IV. SEARCH 22 A. Search Methodology 23 11. The Parties agree to meet and confer and use their reasonable best 24 efforts to reach agreement regarding search methodology to be applied, including, 25 but not limited to, search terms, date restrictions, and Technology Assisted Review 26 (“TAR”). Should either side desire to leverage TAR or Continuous Active Learning 27 (“CAL”) to limit review and production, the Parties agree to meet and confer before 28 any search methodology is implemented or any key words are discussed, to ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL 2 CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 5 of 24 Page ID #:1585 1 determine whether TAR or CAL is appropriate in this Action, and if so, possible 2 methods of employing TAR or CAL to assist in the identification, review, and 3 production of Documents that are subject to production and the filtering out of 4 Documents that are not subject to discovery. If, following the aforementioned meet 5 and confer process, it is agreed that a Party will proceed with the use of TAR or 6 CAL, that Party shall draft a separate protocol detailing the planned use of TAR or 7 CAL which will be subject to further meet and confer before being executed. See 8 The Sedona Conference, The Sedona Principles, Third Edition: Best Practices, 9 Recommendations & Principles for Addressing Electronic Document Production, 10 Principle 6, 19 SEDONA CONF. J. 1, 118 (2018) (“Responding parties are best 11 situated to evaluate the procedures, methodologies, and technologies appropriate for 12 preserving and producing their own electronically stored information.”). 13 12. The Parties will meet and confer regarding document sources, including 14 but not limited to Tableau, which a Producing Party reasonably believes may be 15 responsive to discovery requests and not subject to objections, and for which text- 16 based search technologies are technically ineffective. 17 V. PRIORITIZATION AND DISCLOSURES OF CUSTODIAL AND NON-CUSTODIAL SOURCES 18 19 13. The Parties will each provide their own proposed custodian lists of all 20 custodians to be used for the search of custodial ESI. The Parties shall meet and 21 confer in good faith to reach agreement on each Party’s custodian list. Each Party 22 shall conduct a reasonable search for responsive documents, including from (a) 23 agreed-upon custodial sources and (b) non-custodial sources. Subject to the 24 limitations on discovery imposed by the Court, the Parties retain the right, upon 25 reviewing the production of documents and conducting other investigation and 26 discovery, to request that files from additional custodial or non-custodial sources be 27 searched for, and will meet and confer regarding such requests. 28 ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL 3 CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 6 of 24 Page ID #:1586 1 14. When a Party propounds discovery requests pursuant to Federal Rule 2 of Civil Procedure 34, the Parties shall meet and confer to discuss whether certain 3 categories of information can be prioritized over other categories. Documents will 4 be produced on a rolling basis. 5 VI. PRODUCTION 6 A. Each Production Will Have Four Main Components 7 15. A directory titled “images” containing images of every page of every 8 Document in the production will be Bates-numbered sequentially. Slipsheets may 9 be included instead of images for documents produced in native format. 10 16. A directory titled “natives” containing Native Files for a subset of the 11 Documents, as described below, each file named with the Bates number of the first 12 page of the Document, and with the same extension as the original Native File type 13 of the Document. 14 17. A directory titled “text” containing searchable OCR or Extracted Text 15 files, one file per Document, each file named with the Bates number of the first page 16 of the Document it represents with no additional text beyond this, followed by “.txt” 17 suffix. 18 18. A directory titled “data” containing image and metadata Load Files that 19 contain the Bates ranges and Metadata for each Document. 20 B. Production of Hard-Copy Documents 21 19. Documents maintained in a Party’s ordinary course of business as 22 Hard-Copy Documents should be scanned in a manner so as to retain the original 23 organization of the Hard-Copy Documents. Hard-Copy Documents should be 24 scanned as PDF images with an .opt image cross-reference file and a delimited 25 database load file (i.e., .dat). Hard-Copy Documents should be physically unitized. 26 Hard-Copy Documents shall be run through optical character recognition (“OCR”) 27 software, and the full text shall be provided on a document-level in an appropriately 28 ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL 4 CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 7 of 24 Page ID #:1587 1 formatted searchable text file (.txt) that is named to match the first bates number of 2 the document. 3 20. Paper Documents that contain fixed notes shall be scanned with the 4 notes affixed, if it can be done so in a manner so as not to obstruct other content on 5 the Document. If the content of the Document is obscured by the affixed notes, the 6 Document and notes shall be scanned first as the Document was stored in the 7 ordinary course of business, and then separately. 8 C. Production of Documents 9 21. The Parties agree to produce in the formats described below. If any 10 Party contends that Documents warrant a different format, the Parties will meet and 11 confer to determine a mutually acceptable production for such Documents. 12 22. Image Format. Single-page TIFFs shall be provided for each 13 Document, with each TIFF named after the beginning production number of that 14 Document. Bates numbers, confidentiality designations (in accordance with the 15 protective order governing the case), and redactions (to the extent they are 16 necessary) shall be burned into each image. Image files shall be provided in an 17 “Images” folder. The images may be black and white except as required by 18 Paragraph 26(c) below. Upon a showing of good cause, a Requesting Party may 19 request that certain documents be re-produced with the coloration of the original 20 document. Upon such a request, should the Producing Party object to it, the Parties 21 will meet and confer. 22 23. Extracted Text Files. For native files containing embedded text and 23 no information requiring redactions, the full text of native files shall be extracted 24 directly from the native file (not OCR) and shall be delivered in an appropriately 25 formatted searchable text file (.txt) that is named to match the first bates number of 26 the Document. Text files shall be provided in a “Text” folder. To the extent that a 27 Document is redacted, the Document shall undergo OCR after the text has been 28 redacted to remove redacted text. ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL 5 CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 8 of 24 Page ID #:1588 1 24. Unique IDs. Each Document shall have a unique filename, which 2 corresponds to the first Bates number of the Document. The filename shall not 3 contain any blank spaces and shall be consistently zero-padded (e.g., ABC- 4 0000001), taking into consideration the estimated number of pages to be produced. 5 If a Bates number, or set of Bates numbers, is skipped in a production, the Producing 6 Party will so note in a cover letter or production log accompanying the production. 7 Bates numbers will be unique across the entire production and prefixes will be 8 consistent across all Documents a Party produces in the litigation. 9 25. Parent-Child Relationship. The relationship between attachments, 10 enclosures, embedded files, and/or exhibits to any parent Document shall be 11 preserved. Absent a claim of privilege, the child-document shall be consecutively 12 produced immediately after the parent-document. Each Document shall be produced 13 with the production number for the first and last page of that Document in the “Begin 14 Bates” and “End Bates” fields of the data load file, and with the “BeginFamily” and 15 “EndFamily” fields listing the production number for the first and last page in the 16 Document family. A Document and all other Documents in its attachment range, e- 17 mails with attachments, and files with extracted embedded OLE Documents all 18 constitute family groups. 19 26. Native Format: 20 a) All Documents produced in native format shall include the 21 relative file path of the native files in the document production in the “NativePath” 22 metadata field. All native files produced in lieu of images shall be produced in the 23 manner set forth below in subsection (f). 24 b) Spreadsheets (.XLS, .XLSM, or similar file formats) shall be 25 produced in native format, with the exception that any spreadsheet that requires 26 redaction may be produced either as a TIFF image provided that the unredacted 27 information is viewable or in redacted native form. 28 ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL 6 CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 9 of 24 Page ID #:1589 1 c) Presentation files (.PPT or .PPTX) shall be provided in native 2 format, with the exception that any presentation file that requires redaction may be 3 produced as a color TIFF image provided that the unredacted information is 4 viewable. 5 d) Video or audio files may be provided in native format. 6 e) Documents containing tracked changes, comments, or hidden 7 text or content must be processed to show readily available tracked changes, 8 comments, or hidden text or content, or alternatively such content must be viewable 9 in native format. 10 f) Where native files are produced in lieu of images, each native 11 file will be assigned a unique Bates number. The Producing Party will produce a 12 placeholder (a single-page slip sheet indicating that the native item was produced) 13 along with the file itself in native format. The placeholder will be branded with the 14 production number in the lower right-hand corner and the phrase “PRODUCED IN 15 NATIVE FORMAT” branded in the center of the page. The Producing Party will 16 also brand any confidentiality or similar endorsements in the lower left-hand corner 17 of the placeholder. 18 g) Request for Native Files. Other than as specifically set forth 19 above, a Producing Party need not produce Documents in native format. If good 20 cause exists for the Requesting Party to request production of certain Documents in 21 native format, the Requesting Party may request production in native format by 22 providing (1) a list of the Bates numbers of Documents it requests to be produced in 23 native format or the category of Documents it requests to be produced in native 24 format; and (2) an explanation of the need for reviewing such Documents in native 25 format. The Parties shall meet and confer about such requests. For any request that 26 is denied, the Producing Party shall provide an explanation for the reason or reasons 27 for denying such request. The Producing Party shall produce an overlay to ensure 28 ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL 7 CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 10 of 24 Page ID #:1590 1 that the “NativePath” entry in the data load file indicates the relative file path to each 2 Native File in such production, and all extracted text and applicable metadata fields. 3 27. Password-Protected, Encrypted, or Proprietary-Software Files. 4 With respect to any ESI items that are password-protected or encrypted within the 5 scope of review, the Producing Party will take reasonable vendor automated steps to 6 obtain identified passwords and remove such protection so that the documents can 7 be reviewed and produced if appropriate. ESI that is likely to contain responsive 8 information that cannot be reviewed because proprietary software is necessary to 9 view the ESI will be disclosed to a Requesting Party, and the Parties shall meet and 10 confer regarding the next steps, if any, with respect to such ESI. 11 28. Hyperlinked Documents. The Producing Party will take reasonable 12 vendor automated steps to obtain and produce all Hyperlinked Documents in 13 responsive Documents together with the corresponding responsive Document. In 14 the event that Hyperlinked Documents in a responsive Document cannot be obtained 15 and produced through vendor automated steps, the Producing Party will conduct a 16 reasonable search for Hyperlinked Documents (after identification by the 17 Requesting Party by Bates number) that are within the Producing Party’s custody, 18 possession, or control and inside a responsive Document in the Producing Party’s 19 document production (including hyperlinks inside emails). 20 29. Embedded Documents. Embedded Documents (e.g., a spreadsheet 21 embedded within a word processing document) will be extracted, produced as 22 independent document records, and related back to the respective top level parent 23 Document (e.g., standalone file, email message, etc.) via the “BeginFamily” and 24 “EndFamily” fields referenced in Appendix 1. Related Documents will be produced 25 within a continuous Bates range. 26 30. Data Load Files. Documents shall be provided with an Opticon image 27 .OPT load file and metadata .DAT load file using standard delimiters: 28 a) Field Separator: ASCII character 20 (“¶”); ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL 8 CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 11 of 24 Page ID #:1591 1 b) Quote: ASCII character 254 (“ϸ”); and 2 c) New Line: ASCII character 174 (“®”). 3 31. Metadata. Appendix 1 sets forth the minimum metadata fields that 4 must be produced to the extent that metadata exists for a particular Document. To 5 the extent that metadata does not exist, is not reasonably accessible or available, or 6 would be unduly burdensome to collect, nothing in this ESI Protocol shall require 7 any Party to extract, capture, collect, or produce such data. 8 32. Deduplication. Exact duplicate Documents may be deduplicated 9 (based on MD5 or SHA1 hash values2) at the family-group level provided that the 10 Producing Party identifies the additional custodians in the “All Custodians” field, 11 and the file paths of all duplicates provided in the “All Paths” field. Attachments 12 shall not be eliminated as duplicates for purposes of production, unless all 13 Documents within a family, such as the parent e-mail and all attachments, are also 14 exact duplicates. 15 33. Email Threading. The Parties are permitted to use commercially 16 reasonable email threading tools to remove emails and their attachments where the 17 contents of the email and any attachments are wholly included within another email 18 that is not removed. 19 34. Chat and Collaboration Messages. Chat/collaboration data (e.g., 20 Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom Chat, Google Chat, Webex, Jabber) and text 21 messages (e.g., SMS, iMessage) shall be produced in a searchable format that 22 preserves the presentational features of the original message (e.g., emojis, images, 23 and video files), to the extent reasonably feasible, and shall be produced with its 24 relevant conversation thread broken down by 24-hour increments; provided, 25 however, that a Requesting Party may make a reasonable request for a longer or 26 2 Documents shall be considered exact duplicates of each other if they have the same 27 content hash value or are determined to be exact copies of each other by another 28 reliable automated technological method. ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL 9 CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 12 of 24 Page ID #:1592 1 otherwise different context window for a particular conversation thread by written 2 notice to the Producing Party. The Producing Party will meet and confer with the 3 Requesting Party regarding such a request. To the extent reasonably feasible, where 4 a conversation or thread spans multiple 24-hour increments, the Producing Party 5 shall maintain replies in the same 24-hour increment as the increment where the 6 initial message was sent. To the extent a Requesting Party reasonably believes that 7 an electronic message was not produced in a format that preserved material 8 presentation features of the original message, the Requesting Party shall identify the 9 message by Bates number, and the Producing Party will meet and confer with the 10 Requesting Party. 11 D. Production of Databases and Other Structured Data 12 35. If the Producing Party learns after reasonable investigation that a 13 database or other source of structured data contains responsive information, the 14 Producing Party shall alert the Requesting Party to its existence, and the Parties shall 15 meet and confer to determine how such data can be produced in a mutually agreeable 16 format for producing the database or other structured data. 17 E. Production of Transcripts 18 36. If the Producing Party learns after reasonable investigation that 19 deposition or other transcripts are responsive and not subject to objections, the 20 Producing Party shall alert the Requesting Party to their existence, and the Parties 21 shall meet and confer to determine a mutually agreeable format for producing the 22 transcripts. 23 F. Processing of Third-Party Documents 24 37. A Party that issues a non-party subpoena shall include a copy of this 25 ESI Protocol as an attachment to the subpoena and request that the non-party produce 26 Documents in accordance with the specifications set forth herein. 27 38. The Issuing Party may request that the non-party simultaneously 28 produce Documents to the Issuing Party and all other Parties. If the non-party ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL 10 CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 13 of 24 Page ID #:1593 1 produces Documents only to the Issuing Party, productions by a non-party shall be 2 produced by the Issuing Party to all other Parties within seven days. 3 G. Miscellaneous Provisions 4 39. The following specifications govern the production of all Documents 5 regardless of source, unless otherwise noted in the ESI Protocol: 6 40. Custodian or Originating Source. The custodian or originating source 7 shall be identified in the Custodian field of the database load files. If there is more 8 than one custodian all sources shall likewise be identified in the “All Custodians” 9 field. Documents found in the possession of a natural person (or on a natural person’s 10 hardware or storage media) shall be produced in such fashion as to identify the 11 natural person. Documents found in the possession of a department, group, entity, 12 or other common facility (e.g., office, file room, archive, network storage, file share, 13 back up, hard drive, etc.) shall be produced in such a fashion as to identify the 14 department, group, entity, or facility, so long as no additional metadata need be 15 manually added to make such an identification. A Producing Party shall use a 16 uniform description of a particular custodian across productions. 17 41. Foreign Language. Foreign language text files and metadata shall be 18 delivered with the correct encoding to enable the preservation of the Documents’ 19 original language. 20 42. Dates. All Documents shall be processed to show the date and time in 21 Coordinated Universal Time (“UTC”). Dates and times must be concatenated into a 22 single field, with a format of MM/DD/YYYY HH/MM/SS, and must be consistent 23 within any one field. Date delimiters, such as slashes and colons, must be consistent 24 across all fields. 25 43. Production Media. The preferred means of producing Documents is 26 via secure FTP or secure file share. However, Documents may also be provided via 27 CD, DVD, flash drive, or hard drive. To the extent possible, physical media shall be 28 write-protected before it is produced. ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL 11 CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 14 of 24 Page ID #:1594 1 44. Naming Convention for Production Media. Whether produced via 2 secure FTP, file share, or physical media, the files produced shall be combined into 3 a compressed file such as .zip, .rar, etc. If the production is made using physical 4 media, the media shall be labeled to include (a) text referencing that it was produced 5 in In re The Trade Desk, Inc. Securities Litigation, Case No. 2:25-cv-01396-CAS- 6 DFM; (b) the Bates number range of the materials contained on the media; (c) the 7 filename(s) of the compressed file(s); and (d) the date of production. 8 45. Replacement Productions. Any replacement production will be 9 transmitted with a cover letter or email to identify the production as a replacement 10 and cross-reference the “Begin Bates” and “End Bates” of the Documents being 11 replaced. The name of the document production shall indicate that it is a replacement 12 production. If the replacement production is being transmitted by physical media, 13 the media shall include the phrase “Replacement Production.” 14 46. Encrypted Data. Each production will be encrypted before it is 15 produced and the Producing Party shall contemporaneously transmit the credentials 16 necessary to decrypt the data in a correspondence separate from the email containing 17 the production. 18 47. Non-Waiver. Nothing in this ESI Protocol shall be interpreted to 19 require disclosure of irrelevant information or relevant information protected by the 20 attorney-client privilege, work-product doctrine, or any other applicable privilege or 21 immunity. The Parties do not waive any objections to the production, 22 discoverability, admissibility, or confidentiality of Documents. 23 48. Protective Order. All productions are subject to the Protective Order 24 and any subsequent amendments or addenda or orders entered by the Court in this 25 Action. 26 VII. ASSERTIONS OF PRIVILEGE 27 49. Privilege logs shall be provided in Excel format. Defendants will 28 provide privilege logs for documents withheld from the Individual Defendants, ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL 12 CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 15 of 24 Page ID #:1595 1 Tableau, and Salesforce within 45 days of substantial completion of production of 2 documents from the Individual Defendants, Tableau, and Salesforce. Defendants 3 will provide privilege logs for documents withheld from other document sources 4 within 45 days after substantial completion of document production. Lead Plaintiff 5 will provide privilege logs for their document productions 45 days before their 6 deadline to file their class certification motion. Privilege logs will contain the 7 following information: (i) a unique document identifier; (ii) date (for emails, the sent 8 date; for other documents, the dates it was created and last modified); (iii) 9 sender/author(s); (iv) recipient(s) and copy/bcc recipients, where applicable; (v) 10 custodian(s); (vi) file name, or subject line, to the extent not privileged, and file 11 extension (for ESI); (vii) basis for withholding (e.g., attorney-client privilege, work 12 product); and (viii) a description sufficient to assess the claim without revealing 13 privileged content. A Party shall identify whose advice is being sought, provided, 14 or reflected, or whose work product is included, by the attorney’s name (if 15 reasonably available), title, and law firm or legal department. 16 50. For threaded emails, a Party is not required to itemize every attorney 17 appearing on inclusive emails. Non-inclusive emails that are wholly contained 18 within an inclusive produced thread need not be logged separately. 19 51. Documents shall be logged at the family level. A Requesting Party may 20 request that a reasonable number of entries be logged at the document level. If the 21 Producing Party objects, the Parties will meet and confer. 22 52. Privileged Documents that were created by, sent to, or received by an 23 attorney and were created after commencement of this Action or any lawsuits 24 consolidated in or related to this Action need not be placed on a privilege log. Only 25 documents withheld as privileged must be placed on a privilege log (i.e., documents 26 redacted as partially privileged need not be placed on a privilege log). 27 53. Redacted documents need not be placed on a privilege log so long as 28 the following information is either reasonably identifiable from the non-redacted ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL 13 CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 16 of 24 Page ID #:1596 1 information on the face of the redacted document, provided in the black box on the 2 redacted document, or included in the document’s metadata: (i) date (for emails, the 3 sent date; for other documents, the dates it was created and last modified); (ii) 4 sender/author(s); (iii) recipient(s) and copy/bcc recipients, where applicable; (iv) 5 custodian(s); (v) file name, or subject line, to the extent not privileged, and file 6 extension (for ESI); (vi) basis for withholding (e.g., attorney-client privilege, work 7 product); (vii) context or information sufficient to assess the claim without revealing 8 privileged content; and (viii) the attorney’s name (if reasonably available), title, law 9 firm or legal department for the individual whose advice is being sought, provided, 10 or reflected, or whose work product is included on the redacted document. If the 11 Requesting Party contends that the foregoing information is not reasonably 12 identifiable for particular documents identified by Bates number, the Parties will 13 meet and confer and the Producing Party may provide a redaction log for such 14 documents. 15 VIII. MODIFICATION 16 A. Modification by Agreement 17 54. Any practice or procedure set forth herein may be varied by agreement 18 between the Parties, which will be confirmed in writing, where such variance is 19 deemed appropriate to facilitate the timely and economical exchange of Documents. 20 Before seeking Court intervention, the Parties shall meet and confer in good faith 21 regarding any modification. 22 B. Modification by Court Order 23 55. Nothing in this Protocol waives the right of any Party to petition the 24 Court for an Order modifying the terms upon good cause shown, provided, however, 25 that counsel for such Party must first meet and confer with the counsel for the 26 opposing Party and the Parties shall use reasonable best efforts to negotiate an 27 exception from or modification to this Protocol prior to seeking relief from the Court. 28 ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL 14 CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 17 of 24 Page ID #:1597 1 Dated: August 31, 2026 Respectfully submitted, 2 BERNSTEIN LITOWITZ BERGER 3 & GROSSMANN LLP 4 /s/ Jonathan D. Uslaner 5 Jonathan D. Uslaner (Bar No. 256898) jonathanu@blbglaw.com 6 2121 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 2575 7 Los Angeles, CA 90067 Tel.: (310) 819-3481 8 9 -and- 10 Hannah Ross (pro hac vice) 11 hannah@blbglaw.com 12 John Rizio-Hamilton (pro hac vice) johnr@blbglaw.com 13 Prachi Patel (pro hac vice) 14 prachi.patel@blbglaw.com 1251 Avenue of the Americas 15 New York, NY 10020 16 Tel.: (212) 554-1400 17 Counsel for Lead Plaintiff 18 Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi, and Lead Counsel for the Class 19 20 COHEN MILSTEIN SELLERS & TOLL PLLC 21 22 Laura H. Posner (pro hac vice) lposner@cohenmilstein.com 23 88 Pine St., 14th Floor 24 New York, NY 10005 Tel.: (212) 838-7797 25 26 -and- 27 Steven J. Toll (pro hac vice) 28 stoll@cohenmilstein.com) ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL 15 CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 18 of 24 Page ID #:1598 1 Molly J. Bowen (pro hac vice) mbowen@cohenmilstein.com 2 1100 New York Avenue, N.W., Suite 800 3 Washington, D.C. 20005 Tel.: (202) 408-4600 4 5 Counsel for Lead Plaintiff Arkansas Public Employees’ Retirement System, and Lead 6 Counsel for the Class 7 DAVIDSON, PLLC 8 9 John L. Davidson (pro hac vice) jdavidson@dbslawfirm.net 10 1062 Highland Colony Parkway 11 200 Concourse, Suite 275 12 Ridgeland, Mississippi 39157 Tel.: (601) 932-0028 13 14 Additional Counsel for Lead Plaintiff Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi 15 16 Dated: August 31, 2026 WILSON SONSINI GOODRICH & ROSATI PC 17 18 /s/ Caz Hashemi Caz Hashemi (Bar No. 210239) 19 chashemi@wsgr.com 20 Benjamin M Crosson (Bar No. 247560) bcrosson@wsgr.com 21 650 Page Mill Road 22 Palo Alto, CA 94304-1050 650-493-9300 23 Fax: 866-974-7329 24 -and- 25 26 Jessica L Snorgrass (Bar No. 259962) jsnorgrass@wsgr.com 27 1900 Avenue of the Stars, 28th Floor 28 Los Angeles, CA 90067 ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL 16 CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 19 of 24 Page ID #:1599 1 424-446-6900 Fax: 866-974-7329 2 3 -and- 4 John I. Karin (pro hac vice) jkarin@wsgr.com 5 31 West 52nd Street, Fifth Floor New York, NY 10019 6 212-497-7797 Fax: 866-974-7329 7 Attorneys for Defendants The Trade Desk, Inc., 8 Jeffrey T. Green, Laura Schenkein, and 9 Samantha Jacobson 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL 17 CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 20 of 24 Page ID #:1600 1 ORDER 2 Good cause appearing, the Court hereby approves this Order Establishing the 3 Protocol for the Production of Documents and Electronically Stored Information 4 (“ESI”) and Privilege Logs. 5 6 IT IS SO ORDERED. 7 8 Dated: September 2, 2026 Douglas F. McCormick 9 United States Magistrate Judge 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL 18 CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 21 of 24 Page ID #:1601 1 SIGNATURE ATTESTATION 2 Pursuant to Local Rule 5-4.3.4(a)(2)(i), I, Jonathan D. Uslaner, hereby attest 3 that Laura H. Posner, Molly J. Bowen, Hannah Ross, John Rizio-Hamilton, Prachi 4 Patel, Steven J. Toll, John L. Davidson, Caz Hashemi, Benjamin M. Crosson, Jessica 5 L. Snorgrass, and John I. Karin on whose behalf this filing is also submitted, have 6 concurred in the content of this [Proposed] Order Establishing the Protocol for the 7 Production of Documents and Electronically Stored Information (“ESI”) and 8 Privilege Logs and have authorized its filing. 9 10 Dated: August 31, 2026 Respectfully Submitted: 11 12 By: /s/ Jonathan D. Uslaner Jonathan D. Uslaner 13 BERNSTEIN LITOWITZ BERGER 14 & GROSSMANN LLP 2121 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 2575 15 Los Angeles, CA 90067 16 Counsel for Lead Plaintiff and Lead 17 Counsel for the Class 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL 19 CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 22 of 24 Page ID #:1602 1 APPENDIX 1 ESI METADATA AND CODING FIELDS 2 A. For scanned Hard-Copy Documents, the Producing Party will provide the 3 Metadata fields below. 4 FIELD NAME FIELD DESCRIPTION 5 Begin Bates The production Bates number associated with the first 6 page of a Document. 7 End Bates The production Bates number associated with the last page of a Document 8 BeginFamily Begin Bates number of first page of the parent Document 9 of family of attachments. EndFamily End Bates number of the last page of last attachment to a 10 family of Documents. 11 Pages Total number of pages in the Document. TextPath Link to text file for the document. 12 Placeholder Identifies a Document has a Placeholder image. 13 File Extension The extension of the file. Custodian Identification of the custodian(s) from whom the file was 14 sourced. 15 All Custodians Identification of all custodians of the document. Confidentiality Confidentiality designation. 16 Redacted (Y/N) field that identifies whether the document is 17 redacted. Production Volume Production volume number (e.g., VOL001, VOL002, 18 etc.). 19 Producing Party Name of Party producing the Document. 20 21 B. For Documents that were originally stored in electronic format, all fields below should be provided, to the extent reasonably feasible. Unless otherwise 22 agreed by the Parties, the field-naming conventions shall be as stated below, 23 and shall be consistently applied across all productions: 24 FIELD NAME FIELD DESCRIPTION 25 Begin Bates The production Bates number associated with the first page 26 of a Document. End Bates The production Bates number associated with the last page 27 of a Document. 28 BegAttach Beginning Bates number of the attached documents. ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL 20 CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 23 of 24 Page ID #:1603 1 FIELD NAME FIELD DESCRIPTION 2 EndAttach Ending Bates number of the attached documents. 3 BeginFamily Begin Bates number of the first page of parent Document of family of attachments. 4 EndFamily End Bates number of the last page of last attachment to a 5 family of Documents. AttachCount Number of document attachments. 6 AttachNames Native file names of each individual attachment, separated 7 by semicolons. Custodian Identification of the custodian(s) from whom the file was 8 sourced. 9 All Custodians Identification of all custodians who the Producing Party agreed to produce and where a duplicate of the Document 10 was de-duplicated when processing the documents. 11 File Path The file path from which the document was collected. All Paths Identification of all file paths for duplicate copies. 12 Author/Creator Author and/or Creator field extracted from the Metadata of 13 a Document. From From field extracted from the Metadata of an email 14 message. 15 To To field extracted from the Metadata of an email message. Cc Cc field extracted from the Metadata of an email message. 16 Bcc Bcc field extracted from the Metadata of an email message. 17 Pages Total number of pages in the Document. 18 Date Received Date that an email was received (MM/DD/YYYY). Date Sent Date that an email was sent (MM/DD/YYYY). 19 Date Created Date that a Document was created (MM/DD/YYYY). 20 Date Last Modified Date that a Document was last modified (MM/DD/YYYY). 21 Last Modified By Identification of person(s) who last modified a Document. 22 Time Created Time that a Document was created (HH/MM/SS). Time Sent Time that an email was sent (HH/MM/SS). 23 Time Received Time that an email was received (HH/MM/SS). 24 Time Last Modified Time that a Document was last modified (HH/MM/SS). Message Id Unique Message Id. 25 In Reply To Message ID of email that instant email is in reply to. 26 Subject Subject line extracted from an email, e-document, or e- 27 attachment. Filename The full name of the Native File. 28 Original Folder Path Original location of the file. ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL 21 CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM Case 2:25-cv-01396-CAS-DFM Document 117 Filed 09/02/26 Page 24 of 24 Page ID #:1604 1 FIELD NAME FIELD DESCRIPTION 2 File Extension The extension of the file. 3 Text/Chat Type The type of text or chat (ie: SMS, MMS, Teams, Slack, Etc.). 4 Participants The Participants of the text/chat conversation, represented 5 by either their phone number, name, or both. File Size The size of the file in bytes. 6 MD5 Hash The MD5 hash value of a Document. 7 SHA1 Hash The SHA1 hash value of a Document. Application Name of the application used to open the file. 8 NativePath The relative path to the native file for this Document. 9 TextPath The relative path to the text file for this Document. Redacted Whether a Document has redactions (Y/N). 10 Placeholder Whether a Document has a placeholder image (Y/N). 11 Confidentiality Level of Confidentiality assigned. Track Changes Document has track changes (Y/N). 12 Hidden Content Identifies documents with hidden content (i.e., hidden 13 rows, columns, sheets, or slides). 14 Speaker Notes Document has speaker notes (Y/N). Has Comments Indicates there are comments in the document. 15 Production Volume Production volume number (e.g., V001, V002, etc.). 16 Producing Party Name of Party producing the Document. 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 ESI AND PRIVILEGE LOG PROTOCOL 22 CASE NO. 2:25-CV-01396-CAS-DFM