Stipulated Administrative Motion and Request for Order Changing the Date of Pretrial Conference

SUSAN ILLSTON, District Judge.

In the above-captioned case, the Court heard oral argument on plaintiffs' and defendants' summary judgment motions on December 19, 2015. Later that day, the Court sua sponte changed the pretrial conference date to March 3, 2015, and the trial date to March 16, 2015.

Defendants' counsel is presenting this motion to request a change in the date of the pretrial conference, and plaintiffs' counsel has courteously agreed to stipulate to such a change. The reason for this request is the unavailability of that defense counsel. He is the president of a large international lawyers organization, the International Network of Boutique Law Firms (www.inblf.com), and he has a long-standing commitment to attend and preside over a meeting of the organization in India (and has non-refundable hotel reservations for the event). The first day of the meeting is February 27, and the last day is March 2, 2015. Travel between India to San Francisco takes, at best, almost 24 hours.

For this reason, further noting that the Court is unavailable March 4 to 6 and that plaintiffs' counsel is unavailable before March 12, defendants respectfully request that the pretrial conference be rescheduled to March 12. If this is unacceptable to the Court, we ask alternatively that the conference be rescheduled to February 23. However, in that event, we further ask that counsel not be required to submit the pretrial materials that under the Court's Standing Order must be submitted 14 days before the pretrial conference, until February 17 (the present due date). With the summary judgment motions still unresolved, counsel remain uncertain about the scope of the trial and would be hard-pressed to prepare and submit pretrial materials by February 9. As is noted above, plaintiffs' counsel has courteously agreed to stipulate to these changes.

ORDER

Pursuant to stipulation, it is ordered that the date of the pretrial conference in the above-captioned matter, presently scheduled for March 3, 2015 at 3:30 PM, is changed to:

February 23 at ___________. However, the materials that the Court's Standing Order re Pretrial Instructions require counsel to submit to the Court 14 days in advance of the pretrial conference need not be submitted until February 17, 2015.