## Q9 key (Deleted Messages and Memo)
1. The preservation duty arose January 5 at the demand letter, not at filing. Missed: the whole defense timeline is wrong.
2. The hold was unreasonably narrow: Slack, texts, personal phones, and the two consultants were omitted, and the general counsel's "do the minimum until they actually sue" is a conscious-decision document. Missed: defending the hold as written destroys credibility.
3. Sanctions ladder: Slack and backup losses read as unreasonable-steps negligence with partial replaceability (screenshots, export, recipients), supporting curative measures and fees, not an adverse inference; the vice president's targeted deletions after his "clean up" text, with the two damning screenshots, are the genuine intent-to-deprive exposure, attributable to the company as a contested question. Missed: the client fights the wrong sanction or concedes the worst one.
4. The March 15 backup overwrite, after suit, is a second, independent failure (restoration never requested). Missed: an aggravating fact surfaces unmanaged.
5. Forensic imaging of all executives' personal phones is disproportionate; the defensible counter is targeted collection from the vice president and identified custodians. Missed: an overbroad intrusion or a credibility-costing blanket refusal.
6. Depositions: a narrow, non-privileged preservation-facts deposition of the general counsel is a live risk to manage; outside counsel is off limits. Missed: privilege overclaimed into sanctions.
7. The memorandum stays privileged: correct marking, script error, prompt clawback satisfy the order's standard; opposing counsel's post-notice use violates the stop-use rule and supports relief against them. Missed: a board-level antitrust analysis becomes an exhibit.
8. Posture: self-disclose the search-term defect and preservation gaps, propose a concrete remediation and collection plan, pay reasonable fees, and fight only the adverse inference and the phone imaging. Missed: reflexive opposition converts a survivable record into case-ending sanctions.