Sony Challenges Judge's Ruling in Kesha-Dr. Luke Investigation

Sony Music Entertainment is looking to get out of a court ruling that ordered the record label to tell Kesha and her legal team who it interviewed during an internal investigation into Lukas "Dr. Luke" Gottwald. 

In a filing on Tuesday, Sony asked the court to revert its decision granting Kesha's motion to compel disclosure of the identities of the individuals interviewed by outside counsel as part of the label's preparation of its defense to litigation brought by Kesha. That ruling, Sony claims, "overlooked or misapprehended" matters of fact. 

Dr. Luke is pursuing defamation claims against Kesha, who has claimed the producer raped her and gave her drugs against her will. The $50 million lawsuit is currently near the end of the discovery phase. 

In New York Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Schecter's ruling last week she also pointed out that federal precedent only predicted an interviewee list where disclosure would actually reveal legal strategy.

But that is exactly what Sony is now claiming. The internal investigation conducted by law firm Gibson Dunn, says Sony, conducted these interviews "based on legal strategy and its analysis regarding the defense of the litigation." Sony argues revealing those identities "would reveal attorney thought processes and legal strategy."

"Sony's investigation is not merely a set of materials prepared in anticipation of litigation," states Sony, citing Edelman's affidavit, "but was instead a collection of decisions reflecting legal strategy, undertaken only after Kesha filed a Complaint, for the purpose of developing Sony's legal defense, investigating the truth of Kesha's allegations, and providing legal advice to Sony."