A federal judge in the SEC’s insider...

A federal judge in the SEC’s insider trading lawsuit against Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. issued a temporary stay preventing defense lawyers from interviewing potential SEC witnesses. Lawyers said the stay was issued at least in part because the SEC and Drexel lawyers so far have failed to agree on procedures for pretrial gathering of evidence. The stay means that, for the next several weeks at least, lawyers for Drexel and its employees named in the SEC suit won’t be able to compel sworn testimony from government witnesses, including Ivan F. Boesky.