Assignment Desk Works, LLC v. Alexis Berg
Civil suit filed by Assignment Desk Works, LLC, a company tied to Patrick Bryant, against his former employee Alexis Berg to enforce a non-disparagement clause from a 2019 wage settlement. Rep. Nancy Mace is not a party, but she inserted herself as a 'Proposed Intervenor' to recover materials, including a recorded 2024 phone call, that she had voluntarily given Berg's lawyer, then tried to claw back. The court has repeatedly declined the relief she sought: already-produced materials stay in the record, Berg may keep using them, and the disputed files go to a neutral, all entered over Mace's objection.
Assignment Desk Works, LLC v. Alexis Berg is, on its face, a contract case: a company sued a former employee for allegedly violating a non-disparagement clause. What makes it part of the Mace record is that Rep. Nancy Mace is not a party to it, yet has spent months trying to control its evidence, specifically, materials she herself handed to the other side and then demanded back. This page tracks that effort and how the court has ruled on it. The companion discovery dispute over the 11,000-plus files in Mace's Google Drive is covered in the dispatch on the third-party-neutral order.
What the case is about
Assignment Desk Works, LLC ("ADW"), a company tied to Mace's former fiancé Patrick Bryant, sued Alexis "Ali" Berg, a former employee, to enforce a non-disparagement clause contained in a settlement that resolved an earlier 2019 wage-and-hour dispute. ADW's amended complaint alleges Berg breached that clause, including, per the pleadings, by telling a former co-worker she had been sexually assaulted and was a cooperating witness in a related investigation, and by making other disparaging statements.
Berg has moved for judgment on the pleadings, raising two defenses:
- Truth. Truth is an absolute defense to a disparagement claim, so, Berg argues, evidence bearing on whether the underlying events occurred is "essential to [her] defense."
- The Speak Out Act. Berg contends the federal Speak Out Act (42 U.S.C. § 19401 et seq.) makes a predispute non-disparagement clause unenforceable "with respect to a sexual assault dispute." In June 2026 she filed a reply supported by a sworn declaration from Gretchen Carlson, who helped write the Act.
ADW disputes both defenses, and its own motion for summary judgment catalogs statements it says breached the clause. Both dispositive motions remain undecided.
Procedurally, ADW filed suit on May 7, 2025; the case was briefly removed to federal court and remanded to Charleston County by July 2025. ADW filed an Amended Summons and Complaint on September 25, 2025, and Berg answered with counterclaims on October 29, 2025. ADW moved for summary judgment on January 12, 2026; Berg moved for judgment on the pleadings on May 21, 2026, with her supporting reply and the Carlson declaration following June 8, 2026.
How Mace inserted herself
Mace is not a plaintiff or a defendant here. She entered the case as a "Proposed Intervenor," and the path she took to get there is itself part of the record.
According to a January 2026 emergency motion by Berg's counsel, Mace had voluntarily provided her Google Drive to Berg and Berg's lawyer in June 2025, saying she believed it "contained evidence that would be 'helpful' to Ms. Berg in this litigation," and, per the motion, "placed no restrictions on use of the materials, did not assert any privilege, and did not limit the scope of materials that could be accessed." After Berg produced materials from that Drive in discovery, Mace's position reversed. Berg's counsel told the court Mace had "demanded in a series of threatening emails and letters" that Berg's counsel "(a) cease using evidence for Ms. Berg's defense; (b) return or destroy evidence … and (c) 'claw back' evidence already produced in discovery." (See Mace shared the Drive, then clawed it back.)
When the demands did not work, Mace turned to the court. Appearing pro se on January 27, 2026, she filed a stack of motions in a case she was not part of:
- an Emergency Motion to Intervene, Dismiss, and for Sanctions;
- a Motion to Stay; and
- a sworn, verified Emergency Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order asking the court to bar ADW, Bryant, and Berg's attorneys from accessing, using, or disclosing the contested materials, in effect, a gag on opposing counsel. (See "This Court now stands as the only barrier".)
Because the TRO motion carried a Verification, Mace's factual assertions were made under oath; the same filing placed her candidacy for Governor on the official docket ("Rep. Mace is a sitting Member of the United States House of Representatives and a candidate for Governor of South Carolina"). She has also separately moved to dismiss ADW's suit as a "fishing expedition" (see Mace moves to dismiss).
The phone-call evidence she is trying to take back
A central item in the materials Mace gave Berg, and then sought to recover, is a recording of a roughly 44-minute telephone call Mace placed to Berg on April 6, 2024. According to FITSNews, which published the full audio on June 7, 2026, that recording "had been produced in the ADW v. Berg civil litigation." On the call, in her own words, Mace asks that the conversation stay "private and not shared," tells Berg "I'm going to sue him … Civilly," and frames the matter around a civil payout ("he can sell a building or two, settle, be done … all of us can get 150 K each"). (See the first recorded call.)
That recording is exactly the sort of material Mace's clawback demands and her TRO motion sought to pull back and restrict. Berg's position is the opposite: because truth is a defense to ADW's disparagement claim, the call and related materials are, in her counsel's words, "essential to Ms. Berg's defense," and returning or destroying them "would impair her ability to defend herself." The result is that Mace, a non-party, has been trying to remove from a lawsuit the evidence that the defendant says she needs to win it, evidence Mace had handed over herself.
The contrast with how the court treated a genuinely privileged recording is instructive. On May 22, 2026, Judge Hocker entered a separate Order Protecting Recorded Communication from Disclosure, but that order concerned a different recording, of a conversation among Berg, witness Melissa Britton, and their attorneys, which the court found protected by attorney-client privilege and ordered "shall not be produced." Mace's April 2024 call drew no such protection: it had already been produced, and the June orders left it in the record and available to Berg's defense, with the broader privilege questions over Mace's materials expressly reserved rather than resolved.
What Mace asked for, and what the court did
The court resolved Mace's January 27 motions in two orders signed by Judge Donald B. Hocker in June 2026, after a May 14, 2026 hearing. On the points Mace pressed, the rulings went against her:
- No claw-back of produced materials. The June 9 order provides that all already-produced Google Drive documents "shall remain in production," and that "[n]othing in this Order shall limit, restrict, or otherwise impair Defendant's right to use the already-produced materials in her defense … including in depositions, motions, at trial, or in any related proceedings."
- A neutral, not a gag, for the rest. Rather than restraining opposing counsel, the court routed the unproduced files to a third-party neutral, former Circuit Judge Kristi Harrington, to decide what else may warrant production, an avenue toward more disclosure, not less. (See the neutral order.)
- No findings in her favor, no consent, and shared costs. The orders make "no finding" on privilege, admissibility, prior productions, or ownership; the appointment is expressly "not a Consent Order"; the court entered it while noting "Mace objects to this procedure"; and Mace is responsible for one-half of the neutral's fees.
In short, the relief Mace sought, recovering the materials, restricting their use, and gagging the lawyers, was not granted; the evidence stays in the case and remains available to Berg's defense, and the disputed trove is now headed for an independent review.
Where it stands
The merits are unresolved. ADW's motion for summary judgment and Berg's motion for judgment on the pleadings (with the Carlson declaration) are pending; the third-party neutral is to conduct an initial review and report back to the court on scope and cost. The case remains one of the cluster of related Charleston County matters assigned to Judge Hocker by the Supreme Court of South Carolina (see the Judge Hocker profile), alongside Berg v. Bryant and Mace v. Bowman.
All allegations across this cluster of cases, ADW's disparagement claim, Berg's account of an assault, Bryant's claims, and Mace's sworn assertions, are contested, unproven, and have not been adjudicated. Patrick Bryant and the other men named in related matters deny the allegations against them; Mace denies the claims against her. The orders described here make no finding of fact and no ruling on privilege, admissibility, ownership, or wrongdoing. Nothing on this page is a finding of fact or an opinion on the merits. For background on the individuals named, see People in the Public Record.
Selected docket entries
A curated selection of substantive filings, drawn from the case docket (Case No. 2025-CP-10-2671). It is not the complete docket, which runs to hundreds of entries; routine notices, rosters, and service affidavits are omitted.
| Date | Filing | By | |------|--------|-----| | 2025-05-07 | Summons & Complaint | ADW | | 2025-06-13 | Notice of Removal to District Court | Berg | | 2025-07 | Order remanding from District Court to Circuit Court | Court | | 2025-09-02 | Order of the S.C. Supreme Court assigning the case to Judge Hocker | Court | | 2025-09-25 | Amended Summons & Complaint | ADW | | 2025-10-21 | Order denying motion to dismiss the Amended Complaint | Court | | 2025-10-29 | Answer and Counterclaims to Amended Complaint | Berg | | 2026-01-12 | Motion for Summary Judgment | ADW | | 2026-01-26 | Emergency Motion re: Use of Evidence | Berg | | 2026-01-27 | Emergency Motions to Intervene / Dismiss / for Sanctions, to Stay, and for a TRO | Proposed Intervenor Mace (pro se) | | 2026-02-02 | Memo in Opposition to the Intervenor's Motions | Berg | | 2026-03-18 | Confidentiality Order | Court | | 2026-05-13 | Memo in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment | ADW | | 2026-05-18 | Order denying Berg's Motion to Compel Forensic Inspection | Court | | 2026-05-21 | Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings | Berg | | 2026-05-22 | Order Protecting Recorded Communication from Disclosure (Berg/Britton/counsel recording; attorney-client privilege) | Court | | 2026-06-08 | Reply ISO Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings + Carlson Declaration | Berg | | 2026-06-09 | Order Regarding Third-Party Neutral | Court | | 2026-06-16 | Order Appointing a Third-Party Neutral (Kristi Harrington) | Court |
Documents hosted here (public court records)
- Amended Summons & Complaint (PDF), filed September 25, 2025.
- ADW's Motion for Summary Judgment and Memorandum in Support (PDF), the substantive brief cataloging the statements ADW says breached the clause, filed May 13, 2026 (the one-page motion itself was filed January 12, 2026).
- Berg's Emergency Motion for Judicial Determination Regarding Use of Evidence (PDF), filed January 26, 2026.
- Mace's Emergency Motion to Intervene (PDF) and verified Emergency Motion for Temporary Restraining Order (PDF, 9 pages), filed January 27, 2026 (pro se).
- Memorandum in Opposition to the Intervenor Motions (PDF), filed February 2, 2026.
- Motion to Compel Forensic Inspection (PDF), filed February 10, 2026.
- ADW's Memorandum in Opposition to the Motion to Compel (PDF) and Return to the Emergency Motion (PDF), filed March 4, 2026.
- Mace's Supplemental Brief (PDF) and Response to the Emergency TRO (PDF), filed March 5, 2026.
- Berg's Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings (PDF), filed May 21, 2026.
- Order Protecting Recorded Communication from Disclosure (PDF), signed May 22, 2026.
- Berg's Reply in Support of Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings, with the Declaration of Gretchen Carlson (PDF, 11 pages), filed June 8, 2026.
- Order Regarding Third-Party Neutral (PDF, 3 pages), signed June 9, 2026.
- Order Appointing a Third-Party Neutral (PDF, 3 pages), signed June 16, 2026.
Sources & related coverage
Case No. 2025-CP-10-2671 is searchable on the SC Judicial Branch Public Index (Charleston County) by case number. Related on this site: Mace shared the Drive, then clawed it back · the sworn TRO to gag opposing counsel · the first recorded Mace-Berg call · the Carlson / Speak Out Act filing · the third-party-neutral order · Berg v. Bryant · The Litigation.


























