Dear All, As of Friday 6 March, the CWG-Stewardship has engaged Sidley Austin LLP to advise and consult on the CWG's development of a transition proposal. In the past two weeks, the Client Committee shortlisted three firms, interviewed each of them, and retained one. We chose to retain Sidley primarily because they envisaged the engagement as consultation rather than pure advice. In addition, Sidley presented a strong governance focus as well as specific experience with the U.S. political environment (including a former Congressman and a former Department of Commerce appointee). Sidley is aware of the CWG's tight timeframe and accepts the requirement for highly transparent work methods. Also, the client relationship has been clearly defined and emphasized in the retention letter in that ICANN has instructed Sidley to take direction exclusively from and provide advice and consultation exclusively to the CWG, primarily through the CWG's Client Committee. Sidley has no previous client relationship with ICANN. No conflicts were identified, however please note that Greg Shatan and Holly Gregory from Sidley worked at the same firm over a decade ago. The Client Committee will meet with Sidley Austin on Monday. This call will be recorded and transcribed and we will then provide an update to the CWG on Tuesday's call, where we also plan to introduce the Sidley team to the CWG. Best wishes, Jonathan & Lise
Jonathan: Are we going to have access to at least the recording of this call before our Tuesday meeting? -ed On Sun, Mar 8, 2015 at 5:46 PM, Jonathan Robinson <jrobinson@afilias.info> wrote:
Dear All,
As of Friday 6 March, the CWG-Stewardship has engaged Sidley Austin LLP to advise and consult on the CWG’s development of a transition proposal.
In the past two weeks, the Client Committee shortlisted three firms, interviewed each of them, and retained one. We chose to retain Sidley primarily because they envisaged the engagement as consultation rather than pure advice. In addition, Sidley presented a strong governance focus as well as specific experience with the U.S. political environment (including a former Congressman and a former Department of Commerce appointee).
Sidley is aware of the CWG’s tight timeframe and accepts the requirement for highly transparent work methods. Also, the client relationship has been clearly defined and emphasized in the retention letter in that *ICANN has instructed Sidley to take direction exclusively from and provide advice and consultation exclusively to the CWG, primarily through the CWG’s Client Committee*.
Sidley has no previous client relationship with ICANN. No conflicts were identified, however please note that Greg Shatan and Holly Gregory from Sidley worked at the same firm over a decade ago.
The Client Committee will meet with Sidley Austin on Monday. This call will be recorded and transcribed and we will then provide an update to the CWG on Tuesday’s call, where we also plan to introduce the Sidley team to the CWG.
Best wishes,
Jonathan & Lise
_______________________________________________ CWG-Stewardship mailing list CWG-Stewardship@icann.org https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/cwg-stewardship
-- *NOTICE:* This email may contain information which is confidential and/or subject to legal privilege, and is intended for the use of the named addressee only. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not use, disclose or copy any part of this email. If you have received this email by mistake, please notify the sender and delete this message immediately.
Hi Eduardo and all, It'll take me a few minutes to get the Adobe recording and at approximately COB today, we should have the full transcript and Mp3 recording. Until then, here are the notes and chat transcript: https://community.icann.org/x/hxAnAw Best, Grace From: Eduardo Diaz <eduardodiazrivera@gmail.com> Date: Monday, March 9, 2015 10:58 AM To: Jonathan Robinson <jrobinson@afilias.info> Cc: "cwg-stewardship@icann.org" <cwg-stewardship@icann.org> Subject: Re: [CWG-Stewardship] Sidley Austin LLP Jonathan: Are we going to have access to at least the recording of this call before our Tuesday meeting? -ed On Sun, Mar 8, 2015 at 5:46 PM, Jonathan Robinson <jrobinson@afilias.info> wrote:
Dear All,
As of Friday 6 March, the CWG-Stewardship has engaged Sidley Austin LLP to advise and consult on the CWG¹s development of a transition proposal.
In the past two weeks, the Client Committee shortlisted three firms, interviewed each of them, and retained one. We chose to retain Sidley primarily because they envisaged the engagement as consultation rather than pure advice. In addition, Sidley presented a strong governance focus as well as specific experience with the U.S. political environment (including a former Congressman and a former Department of Commerce appointee).
Sidley is aware of the CWG¹s tight timeframe and accepts the requirement for highly transparent work methods. Also, the client relationship has been clearly defined and emphasized in the retention letter in that ICANN has instructed Sidley to take direction exclusively from and provide advice and consultation exclusively to the CWG, primarily through the CWG¹s Client Committee.
Sidley has no previous client relationship with ICANN. No conflicts were identified, however please note that Greg Shatan and Holly Gregory from Sidley worked at the same firm over a decade ago.
The Client Committee will meet with Sidley Austin on Monday. This call will be recorded and transcribed and we will then provide an update to the CWG on Tuesday¹s call, where we also plan to introduce the Sidley team to the CWG.
Best wishes,
Jonathan & Lise
_______________________________________________ CWG-Stewardship mailing list CWG-Stewardship@icann.org https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/cwg-stewardship
-- NOTICE: This email may contain information which is confidential and/or subject to legal privilege, and is intended for the use of the named addressee only. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not use, disclose or copy any part of this email. If you have received this email by mistake, please notify the sender and delete this message immediately.
Jonathan Congratulations, I think the Client Committee made a wise choice, at least based on the limited materials we were provided. Can we clarify now that the Sidley Austin team's client is the CWG itself, as a whole, and not just the client committee? --MM From: cwg-stewardship-bounces@icann.org [mailto:cwg-stewardship-bounces@icann.org] On Behalf Of Jonathan Robinson Sent: Sunday, March 8, 2015 5:46 PM To: cwg-stewardship@icann.org Subject: [CWG-Stewardship] Sidley Austin LLP Dear All, As of Friday 6 March, the CWG-Stewardship has engaged Sidley Austin LLP to advise and consult on the CWG's development of a transition proposal. In the past two weeks, the Client Committee shortlisted three firms, interviewed each of them, and retained one. We chose to retain Sidley primarily because they envisaged the engagement as consultation rather than pure advice. In addition, Sidley presented a strong governance focus as well as specific experience with the U.S. political environment (including a former Congressman and a former Department of Commerce appointee). Sidley is aware of the CWG's tight timeframe and accepts the requirement for highly transparent work methods. Also, the client relationship has been clearly defined and emphasized in the retention letter in that ICANN has instructed Sidley to take direction exclusively from and provide advice and consultation exclusively to the CWG, primarily through the CWG's Client Committee. Sidley has no previous client relationship with ICANN. No conflicts were identified, however please note that Greg Shatan and Holly Gregory from Sidley worked at the same firm over a decade ago. The Client Committee will meet with Sidley Austin on Monday. This call will be recorded and transcribed and we will then provide an update to the CWG on Tuesday's call, where we also plan to introduce the Sidley team to the CWG. Best wishes, Jonathan & Lise
I’m listening to the recording at the moment and just noticed a comment from San Eisner that I don’t think was addressed on the call:
Samantha Eisner: Holly, on the CWG list, I think that it's our responsibility to flag for you the items that we consider as important
Can we just have a definitive clarification of a couple items: * That the CWG is guiding assignments not ICANN Legal or Staff * That ICANN Legal will not be guiding or limiting the advise given by Sidley And I would like to know the role of Jones Day in this process, I not a number of references to Jones Day and to Kevin Espinola specifically. I understand ICANN Leal being involved due to the costs structuring etc. Is ICANN preparing its own (Dissenting?) legal advice through this process in parallel or is that just my mind running away with a minor point. James Gannon Director - Cyber Invasion Ltd Dublin, Ireland On 9 Mar 2015, at 15:47, Milton L Mueller <mueller@syr.edu<mailto:mueller@syr.edu>> wrote: Jonathan Congratulations, I think the Client Committee made a wise choice, at least based on the limited materials we were provided. Can we clarify now that the Sidley Austin team’s client is the CWG itself, as a whole, and not just the client committee? --MM From: cwg-stewardship-bounces@icann.org<mailto:cwg-stewardship-bounces@icann.org> [mailto:cwg-stewardship-bounces@icann.org] On Behalf Of Jonathan Robinson Sent: Sunday, March 8, 2015 5:46 PM To: cwg-stewardship@icann.org<mailto:cwg-stewardship@icann.org> Subject: [CWG-Stewardship] Sidley Austin LLP Dear All, As of Friday 6 March, the CWG-Stewardship has engaged Sidley Austin LLP to advise and consult on the CWG’s development of a transition proposal. In the past two weeks, the Client Committee shortlisted three firms, interviewed each of them, and retained one. We chose to retain Sidley primarily because they envisaged the engagement as consultation rather than pure advice. In addition, Sidley presented a strong governance focus as well as specific experience with the U.S. political environment (including a former Congressman and a former Department of Commerce appointee). Sidley is aware of the CWG’s tight timeframe and accepts the requirement for highly transparent work methods. Also, the client relationship has been clearly defined and emphasized in the retention letter in that ICANN has instructed Sidley to take direction exclusively from and provide advice and consultation exclusively to the CWG, primarily through the CWG’s Client Committee. Sidley has no previous client relationship with ICANN. No conflicts were identified, however please note that Greg Shatan and Holly Gregory from Sidley worked at the same firm over a decade ago. The Client Committee will meet with Sidley Austin on Monday. This call will be recorded and transcribed and we will then provide an update to the CWG on Tuesday’s call, where we also plan to introduce the Sidley team to the CWG. Best wishes, Jonathan & Lise _______________________________________________ CWG-Stewardship mailing list CWG-Stewardship@icann.org<mailto:CWG-Stewardship@icann.org> https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/cwg-stewardship
James, I think you can rest assured on your two bullet points. I think Jonathan summarized it well when he said above "the client relationship has been clearly defined and emphasized in the retention letter in that *ICANN has instructed Sidley to take direction exclusively from and provide advice and consultation exclusively to the CWG, primarily through the CWG’s Client Committee*." This is a key point in the engagement letter. Kevin Espinola of Jones Day was involved in the law firm interviewing process. He was very helpful and did not push any "agenda" in the process that I could see. It was actually quite useful to me in particular to have another U.S. "outside" lawyer involved in the process. No other Jones Day attorneys were involved. I can't see anything that ICANN Legal or Jones Day di that would assist them in preparing their own legal advice in parallel (though they are free to do so, of course), or to steer the type of advice we will will get. So I think it's just your imagination, runnin' away with you (to paraphrase The Temptations). Greg On Mon, Mar 9, 2015 at 12:47 PM, James Gannon <james@cyberinvasion.net> wrote:
I’m listening to the recording at the moment and just noticed a comment from San Eisner that I don’t think was addressed on the call:
Samantha Eisner: Holly, on the CWG list, I think that it's our responsibility to flag for you the items that we consider as important
Can we just have a definitive clarification of a couple items:
- That the CWG is guiding assignments not ICANN Legal or Staff - That ICANN Legal will not be guiding or limiting the advise given by Sidley
And I would like to know the role of Jones Day in this process, I not a number of references to Jones Day and to Kevin Espinola specifically. I understand ICANN Leal being involved due to the costs structuring etc. Is ICANN preparing its own (Dissenting?) legal advice through this process in parallel or is that just my mind running away with a minor point.
James Gannon Director - Cyber Invasion Ltd Dublin, Ireland
On 9 Mar 2015, at 15:47, Milton L Mueller <mueller@syr.edu> wrote:
Jonathan Congratulations, I think the Client Committee made a wise choice, at least based on the limited materials we were provided.
Can we clarify now that the Sidley Austin team’s client is the CWG itself, as a whole, and not just the client committee?
--MM
*From:* cwg-stewardship-bounces@icann.org [ mailto:cwg-stewardship-bounces@icann.org <cwg-stewardship-bounces@icann.org>] *On Behalf Of *Jonathan Robinson *Sent:* Sunday, March 8, 2015 5:46 PM *To:* cwg-stewardship@icann.org *Subject:* [CWG-Stewardship] Sidley Austin LLP
Dear All,
As of Friday 6 March, the CWG-Stewardship has engaged Sidley Austin LLP to advise and consult on the CWG’s development of a transition proposal.
In the past two weeks, the Client Committee shortlisted three firms, interviewed each of them, and retained one. We chose to retain Sidley primarily because they envisaged the engagement as consultation rather than pure advice. In addition, Sidley presented a strong governance focus as well as specific experience with the U.S. political environment (including a former Congressman and a former Department of Commerce appointee).
Sidley is aware of the CWG’s tight timeframe and accepts the requirement for highly transparent work methods. Also, the client relationship has been clearly defined and emphasized in the retention letter in that *ICANN has instructed Sidley to take direction exclusively from and provide advice and consultation exclusively to the CWG, primarily through the CWG’s Client Committee*.
Sidley has no previous client relationship with ICANN. No conflicts were identified, however please note that Greg Shatan and Holly Gregory from Sidley worked at the same firm over a decade ago.
The Client Committee will meet with Sidley Austin on Monday. This call will be recorded and transcribed and we will then provide an update to the CWG on Tuesday’s call, where we also plan to introduce the Sidley team to the CWG.
Best wishes,
Jonathan & Lise
_______________________________________________ CWG-Stewardship mailing list CWG-Stewardship@icann.org https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/cwg-stewardship
_______________________________________________ CWG-Stewardship mailing list CWG-Stewardship@icann.org https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/cwg-stewardship
Brilliant thanks Greg exactly what I was hoping to hear. Looking forward to working with Holly and the Sidley team in the coming weeks. From: Greg Shatan [mailto:gregshatanipc@gmail.com] Sent: Monday, March 09, 2015 6:42 PM To: James Gannon Cc: cwg-stewardship@icann.org Subject: Re: [CWG-Stewardship] Sidley Austin LLP James, I think you can rest assured on your two bullet points. I think Jonathan summarized it well when he said above "the client relationship has been clearly defined and emphasized in the retention letter in that ICANN has instructed Sidley to take direction exclusively from and provide advice and consultation exclusively to the CWG, primarily through the CWG’s Client Committee." This is a key point in the engagement letter. Kevin Espinola of Jones Day was involved in the law firm interviewing process. He was very helpful and did not push any "agenda" in the process that I could see. It was actually quite useful to me in particular to have another U.S. "outside" lawyer involved in the process. No other Jones Day attorneys were involved. I can't see anything that ICANN Legal or Jones Day di that would assist them in preparing their own legal advice in parallel (though they are free to do so, of course), or to steer the type of advice we will will get. So I think it's just your imagination, runnin' away with you (to paraphrase The Temptations). Greg On Mon, Mar 9, 2015 at 12:47 PM, James Gannon <james@cyberinvasion.net<mailto:james@cyberinvasion.net>> wrote: I’m listening to the recording at the moment and just noticed a comment from San Eisner that I don’t think was addressed on the call:
Samantha Eisner: Holly, on the CWG list, I think that it's our responsibility to flag for you the items that we consider as important
Can we just have a definitive clarification of a couple items: * That the CWG is guiding assignments not ICANN Legal or Staff * That ICANN Legal will not be guiding or limiting the advise given by Sidley And I would like to know the role of Jones Day in this process, I not a number of references to Jones Day and to Kevin Espinola specifically. I understand ICANN Leal being involved due to the costs structuring etc. Is ICANN preparing its own (Dissenting?) legal advice through this process in parallel or is that just my mind running away with a minor point. James Gannon Director - Cyber Invasion Ltd Dublin, Ireland On 9 Mar 2015, at 15:47, Milton L Mueller <mueller@syr.edu<mailto:mueller@syr.edu>> wrote: Jonathan Congratulations, I think the Client Committee made a wise choice, at least based on the limited materials we were provided. Can we clarify now that the Sidley Austin team’s client is the CWG itself, as a whole, and not just the client committee? --MM From: cwg-stewardship-bounces@icann.org<mailto:cwg-stewardship-bounces@icann.org> [mailto:cwg-stewardship-bounces@icann.org] On Behalf Of Jonathan Robinson Sent: Sunday, March 8, 2015 5:46 PM To: cwg-stewardship@icann.org<mailto:cwg-stewardship@icann.org> Subject: [CWG-Stewardship] Sidley Austin LLP Dear All, As of Friday 6 March, the CWG-Stewardship has engaged Sidley Austin LLP to advise and consult on the CWG’s development of a transition proposal. In the past two weeks, the Client Committee shortlisted three firms, interviewed each of them, and retained one. We chose to retain Sidley primarily because they envisaged the engagement as consultation rather than pure advice. In addition, Sidley presented a strong governance focus as well as specific experience with the U.S. political environment (including a former Congressman and a former Department of Commerce appointee). Sidley is aware of the CWG’s tight timeframe and accepts the requirement for highly transparent work methods. Also, the client relationship has been clearly defined and emphasized in the retention letter in that ICANN has instructed Sidley to take direction exclusively from and provide advice and consultation exclusively to the CWG, primarily through the CWG’s Client Committee. Sidley has no previous client relationship with ICANN. No conflicts were identified, however please note that Greg Shatan and Holly Gregory from Sidley worked at the same firm over a decade ago. The Client Committee will meet with Sidley Austin on Monday. This call will be recorded and transcribed and we will then provide an update to the CWG on Tuesday’s call, where we also plan to introduce the Sidley team to the CWG. Best wishes, Jonathan & Lise _______________________________________________ CWG-Stewardship mailing list CWG-Stewardship@icann.org<mailto:CWG-Stewardship@icann.org> https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/cwg-stewardship _______________________________________________ CWG-Stewardship mailing list CWG-Stewardship@icann.org<mailto:CWG-Stewardship@icann.org> https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/cwg-stewardship
Milton, The Sidley engagement letter states that direction will come exclusively from and advice will go exclusively to the CWG, primarily through the CWG’s Client Committee. So, ultimately, it comes down to the CWG, not the Client Committee. Greg On Mon, Mar 9, 2015 at 11:47 AM, Milton L Mueller <mueller@syr.edu> wrote:
Jonathan
Congratulations, I think the Client Committee made a wise choice, at least based on the limited materials we were provided.
Can we clarify now that the Sidley Austin team’s client is the CWG itself, as a whole, and not just the client committee?
--MM
*From:* cwg-stewardship-bounces@icann.org [mailto: cwg-stewardship-bounces@icann.org] *On Behalf Of *Jonathan Robinson *Sent:* Sunday, March 8, 2015 5:46 PM *To:* cwg-stewardship@icann.org *Subject:* [CWG-Stewardship] Sidley Austin LLP
Dear All,
As of Friday 6 March, the CWG-Stewardship has engaged Sidley Austin LLP to advise and consult on the CWG’s development of a transition proposal.
In the past two weeks, the Client Committee shortlisted three firms, interviewed each of them, and retained one. We chose to retain Sidley primarily because they envisaged the engagement as consultation rather than pure advice. In addition, Sidley presented a strong governance focus as well as specific experience with the U.S. political environment (including a former Congressman and a former Department of Commerce appointee).
Sidley is aware of the CWG’s tight timeframe and accepts the requirement for highly transparent work methods. Also, the client relationship has been clearly defined and emphasized in the retention letter in that *ICANN has instructed Sidley to take direction exclusively from and provide advice and consultation exclusively to the CWG, primarily through the CWG’s Client Committee*.
Sidley has no previous client relationship with ICANN. No conflicts were identified, however please note that Greg Shatan and Holly Gregory from Sidley worked at the same firm over a decade ago.
The Client Committee will meet with Sidley Austin on Monday. This call will be recorded and transcribed and we will then provide an update to the CWG on Tuesday’s call, where we also plan to introduce the Sidley team to the CWG.
Best wishes,
Jonathan & Lise
_______________________________________________ CWG-Stewardship mailing list CWG-Stewardship@icann.org https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/cwg-stewardship
All, Please see attached for the executed engagement letter with Sidley Austin. Jonathan From: Jonathan Robinson [mailto:jrobinson@afilias.info] Sent: 08 March 2015 21:46 To: cwg-stewardship@icann.org Subject: Sidley Austin LLP Dear All, As of Friday 6 March, the CWG-Stewardship has engaged Sidley Austin LLP to advise and consult on the CWG's development of a transition proposal. In the past two weeks, the Client Committee shortlisted three firms, interviewed each of them, and retained one. We chose to retain Sidley primarily because they envisaged the engagement as consultation rather than pure advice. In addition, Sidley presented a strong governance focus as well as specific experience with the U.S. political environment (including a former Congressman and a former Department of Commerce appointee). Sidley is aware of the CWG's tight timeframe and accepts the requirement for highly transparent work methods. Also, the client relationship has been clearly defined and emphasized in the retention letter in that ICANN has instructed Sidley to take direction exclusively from and provide advice and consultation exclusively to the CWG, primarily through the CWG's Client Committee. Sidley has no previous client relationship with ICANN. No conflicts were identified, however please note that Greg Shatan and Holly Gregory from Sidley worked at the same firm over a decade ago. The Client Committee will meet with Sidley Austin on Monday. This call will be recorded and transcribed and we will then provide an update to the CWG on Tuesday's call, where we also plan to introduce the Sidley team to the CWG. Best wishes, Jonathan & Lise
All, You may find the attached a more easily digestible summary of key terms. Jonathan From: Jonathan Robinson [mailto:jrobinson@afilias.info] Sent: 09 March 2015 21:06 To: cwg-stewardship@icann.org Subject: RE: Sidley Austin LLP All, Please see attached for the executed engagement letter with Sidley Austin. Jonathan From: Jonathan Robinson [mailto:jrobinson@afilias.info] Sent: 08 March 2015 21:46 To: cwg-stewardship@icann.org Subject: Sidley Austin LLP Dear All, As of Friday 6 March, the CWG-Stewardship has engaged Sidley Austin LLP to advise and consult on the CWG's development of a transition proposal. In the past two weeks, the Client Committee shortlisted three firms, interviewed each of them, and retained one. We chose to retain Sidley primarily because they envisaged the engagement as consultation rather than pure advice. In addition, Sidley presented a strong governance focus as well as specific experience with the U.S. political environment (including a former Congressman and a former Department of Commerce appointee). Sidley is aware of the CWG's tight timeframe and accepts the requirement for highly transparent work methods. Also, the client relationship has been clearly defined and emphasized in the retention letter in that ICANN has instructed Sidley to take direction exclusively from and provide advice and consultation exclusively to the CWG, primarily through the CWG's Client Committee. Sidley has no previous client relationship with ICANN. No conflicts were identified, however please note that Greg Shatan and Holly Gregory from Sidley worked at the same firm over a decade ago. The Client Committee will meet with Sidley Austin on Monday. This call will be recorded and transcribed and we will then provide an update to the CWG on Tuesday's call, where we also plan to introduce the Sidley team to the CWG. Best wishes, Jonathan & Lise
Thank you for this email Jonathan. Is this retained firm going to be able to provide answers to our questions relating to California law relating to for profit and not for profit corporations? Similarly, is this retained firm able to provide insight regarding international law? I note "Laws Covered" bottom of page 7: "Except as may be otherwise agreed to by Sidley in writing, our representation of the Client hereunder will be limited to matters of United States federal law, state law in states in which we have offices and, as applicable, the Delaware Limited Liability Company Act and the Delaware General Corporation Law." Kind regards, Olivier On 09/03/2015 22:05, Jonathan Robinson wrote:
All,
Please see attached for the executed engagement letter with Sidley Austin.
Jonathan
*From:*Jonathan Robinson [mailto:jrobinson@afilias.info] *Sent:* 08 March 2015 21:46 *To:* cwg-stewardship@icann.org *Subject:* Sidley Austin LLP
Dear All,
As of Friday 6 March, the CWG-Stewardship has engaged Sidley Austin LLP to advise and consult on the CWG’s development of a transition proposal.
In the past two weeks, the Client Committee shortlisted three firms, interviewed each of them, and retained one. We chose to retain Sidley primarily because they envisaged the engagement as consultation rather than pure advice. In addition, Sidley presented a strong governance focus as well as specific experience with the U.S. political environment (including a former Congressman and a former Department of Commerce appointee).
Sidley is aware of the CWG’s tight timeframe and accepts the requirement for highly transparent work methods. Also, the client relationship has been clearly defined and emphasized in the retention letter in that /ICANN has instructed Sidley to take direction exclusively from and provide advice and consultation exclusively to the CWG, primarily through the CWG’s Client Committee/.
Sidley has no previous client relationship with ICANN. No conflicts were identified, however please note that Greg Shatan and Holly Gregory from Sidley worked at the same firm over a decade ago.
The Client Committee will meet with Sidley Austin on Monday. This call will be recorded and transcribed and we will then provide an update to the CWG on Tuesday’s call, where we also plan to introduce the Sidley team to the CWG.
Best wishes,
Jonathan & Lise
_______________________________________________ CWG-Stewardship mailing list CWG-Stewardship@icann.org https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/cwg-stewardship
-- Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond, PhD http://www.gih.com/ocl.html
Olivier, Yes. It was a base requirement that the firm have strong California law expertise in these very areas. SIdley has over 200 lawyers in California, and they deal with corporate and non-profit issues every day. Our team, whom you'll meet tomorrow includes just such expertise. As for international law, they have a number of non-US offices and additionally attorneys with significant comparative knowledge of the pros and cons of various jurisdictions including and beyond those. Where necessary they can reach out to established networks beyond the firm for more detailed advice. No firm has lawyers everywhere; this is the standard way of dealing with such things. Greg On Mon, Mar 9, 2015 at 6:48 PM, Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond <ocl@gih.com> wrote:
Thank you for this email Jonathan.
Is this retained firm going to be able to provide answers to our questions relating to California law relating to for profit and not for profit corporations? Similarly, is this retained firm able to provide insight regarding international law? I note "Laws Covered" bottom of page 7: "Except as may be otherwise agreed to by Sidley in writing, our representation of the Client hereunder will be limited to matters of United States federal law, state law in states in which we have offices and, as applicable, the Delaware Limited Liability Company Act and the Delaware General Corporation Law."
Kind regards,
Olivier
On 09/03/2015 22:05, Jonathan Robinson wrote:
All,
Please see attached for the executed engagement letter with Sidley Austin.
Jonathan
*From:* Jonathan Robinson [mailto:jrobinson@afilias.info <jrobinson@afilias.info>] *Sent:* 08 March 2015 21:46 *To:* cwg-stewardship@icann.org *Subject:* Sidley Austin LLP
Dear All,
As of Friday 6 March, the CWG-Stewardship has engaged Sidley Austin LLP to advise and consult on the CWG’s development of a transition proposal.
In the past two weeks, the Client Committee shortlisted three firms, interviewed each of them, and retained one. We chose to retain Sidley primarily because they envisaged the engagement as consultation rather than pure advice. In addition, Sidley presented a strong governance focus as well as specific experience with the U.S. political environment (including a former Congressman and a former Department of Commerce appointee).
Sidley is aware of the CWG’s tight timeframe and accepts the requirement for highly transparent work methods. Also, the client relationship has been clearly defined and emphasized in the retention letter in that *ICANN has instructed Sidley to take direction exclusively from and provide advice and consultation exclusively to the CWG, primarily through the CWG’s Client Committee*.
Sidley has no previous client relationship with ICANN. No conflicts were identified, however please note that Greg Shatan and Holly Gregory from Sidley worked at the same firm over a decade ago.
The Client Committee will meet with Sidley Austin on Monday. This call will be recorded and transcribed and we will then provide an update to the CWG on Tuesday’s call, where we also plan to introduce the Sidley team to the CWG.
Best wishes,
Jonathan & Lise
_______________________________________________ CWG-Stewardship mailing listCWG-Stewardship@icann.orghttps://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/cwg-stewardship
-- Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond, PhDhttp://www.gih.com/ocl.html
_______________________________________________ CWG-Stewardship mailing list CWG-Stewardship@icann.org https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/cwg-stewardship
participants (8)
-
Eduardo Diaz -
Grace Abuhamad -
Greg Shatan -
James Gannon -
Jonathan Robinson -
Jonathan Robinson -
Milton L Mueller -
Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond