Louis Freeh’s law firm is, once again, going toe-to-toe with the estate of former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno in Centre County Court.
The law firm of Pepper Hamilton, which acquired Freeh’s firm through a merger in 2012, is trying to avoid turning over documents in the lawsuit between the Paterno estate and the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Pepper Hamilton is not a party to the lawsuit, but has become entangled in the increasingly complicated legal proceeding.
The plaintiffs in the suit — which includes the Paterno estate, former Penn State assistant football coaches Jay Paterno and William Kenney and former university trustee Al Clemens — want Pepper Hamilton to comply with a subpoena served last September. The subpoena demands that the firm produce a large number of documents gathered over the course of Louis Freeh’s investigation at Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.
But in new court documents filed Thursday, Pepper Hamilton says the plaintiffs have ignored objections by “burying their heads in the sand.”
Pepper Hamilton says it filed a response to the subpoena in December, arguing that the plaintiffs’ request was overly broad, vaguely worded and asked for documents protected by the legal tools of attorney-client privilege and work-product doctrine. But the attorneys for the Paterno estate never responded to the objections, and instead filed a motion asking the court to enforce the subpoena.
“At a minimum, Plaintiffs are obligated to explain why every one of those objections is unfounded before Plaintiffs can ask for a blanket order that all responsive documents be produced,” Thursday’s filing reads. “… Plaintiffs apparently hope to bypass Pepper Hamilton’s objections entirely by ignoring the subpoena response and heading right to court.”
Pepper Hamilton also claims the Paterno estate has also ignored the fact that the law firm has already willingly turned over a number of communications between the Freeh Group, the NCAA and the Big Ten athletic conference.
“Pepper Hamilton remains willing to engage in a good faith effort to resolve its objections to the Subpoena such that any issues that remain unresolved may be properly defined and presented to the Court,” Thursday’s filing reads.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit first filed their suit against the NCAA in May 2013. They argue that the NCAA overstepped its authority in the aftermath of the Sandusky scandal, ultimately decreasing the value of the Paterno estate and making it more difficult for Jay Paterno and Kenney to find work.
Pepper Hamilton is entangled in the case because it acquired the law firm of Freeh, Sporkin and Sullivan in 2012. Freeh and a team of investigators were hired by Penn State in 2011 to determine what actions or inactions allowed the Sandusky scandal to unfold. The Freeh Report was released in 2012, and ultimately formed the basis for the NCAA’s punitive sanctions against Penn State.
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