The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has upended a Mississippi federal magistrate judge’s order that would have forced 15 lawyers from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher to hand over privileged information to defense attorneys about why their plaintiff client settled a related business dispute for $18 million.

The recent decision involves a disputed corporate merger between plaintiff Itron and defendant SmartSynch. Itron bought SmartSynch for $100 million but alleged three of SmartSynch corporate officers caused it to assume an unwanted $60 million contractual obligation to a third company called Consert.