GE’s 401(k) Litigation Concerns Insufficient to Shield Documents

General Electric Co.'s effort to shield internal documents from a class of thousands of 401(k) plan participants hit a speed bump when a Boston federal judge said she needed a better explanation for why many files should remain secret.

GE argued many of the documents were protected by attorney-client privilege, while the plaintiffs—participants in GE’s 401(k) plan—argued the privilege doesn’t apply because the documents concerned business advice or were shared with non-lawyers at Credit Suisse.

Judge Indira Talwani of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts ordered GE to better explain the precise roles its attorneys played in ...