[CCWG-ACCT] Legal sub-team update

Kieren McCarthy kieren at kierenmccarthy.com
Wed Mar 25 23:38:39 UTC 2015


This approach may look sound on the inside but there are two clearly very
unusual aspects to it:

1. A small group of people have decided that they should step outside
accepted norms in the IANA transition process and been given control of a
critical process. They have implemented it immediately, and are judging the
validity of their decision by how much they themselves agree with it

2. One of that small group appears to be ICANN's senior counsel. Something
that is transparently a conflict of interest given that the entire process
is supposed to be about gaining legal advice independent of ICANN

Not only were these decisions made within the group and in a very short
period of time with no effort to seek outside approval or input but the
group hasn't even put together a reasoned explanation for why it has taken
this approach.

Even if you are one of the people that have allowed themselves inside this
process, surely you can see that this is a terrible precedent for no good
reason.

So I would ask:

* Why? Was there any evidence that this approach was actually needed? Or
was it an assumed pre-emptive reduction in transparency and accountability?
How long was the actual discussion?

* What is the explanation/justification for having a member of ICANN's
legal team on a committee that is specifically set up to gather legal
advice independent from ICANN? How is this conflict of interest explained
away?


Kieren




On Wed, Mar 25, 2015 at 2:42 PM, León Felipe Sánchez Ambía <
leonfelipe at sanchez.mx> wrote:

> Dear Eberhard,
>
> This was discussed and agreed upon in the legal team update session we had
> in our morning meeting on day 2 of our Istanbul meeting and then on a later
> call of the legal sub-team that same day.
>
> Best regards,
>
>
> León
>
> El 25/03/2015, a las 23:29, Dr Eberhard W Lisse <el at lisse.na> escribió:
>
> Am I missing something here?
>
> When was this discussed, read twice and agreed upon?
>
>
> el
>
> --
> Sent from Dr Lisse's iPad mini
>
> On Mar 25, 2015, at 22:57, León Felipe Sánchez Ambía <
> leonfelipe at sanchez.mx> wrote:
>
> Dear all,
>
> Moving forward, following the agreements made in our meeting with the
> wider CCWG and the legal sub team’s call on 24 March, the Legal Subteam
> mailing-list will, from now on, be the sole avenue for any communications,
> requests and advice sent to and received from our independent legal experts.
>
> Also as agreed during our call, mailing-list posting rights have been
> edited to help streamline communications. It was agreed that a compact
> subset of legal sub-team participants would serve as executive team in
> order to make communications easier to handle between the CCWG and the law
> firms. Agreement was established so solely members of the legal executive
> team now have posting rights to this list.
>
> The list will remain open for anyone to observe and it will continue to be
> publicly archived. In the event that anyone form the larger CCWG group
> would like to raise a question or issue, the question should be posted to
> the general list so it can be properly documented by the legal subteam and
> sent to the lawyers accordingly.
>
> Questions that fall out of the scope stated in the CCWG charter will not
> qualify to be addressed by the independent legal experts.
>
> A description of the agreed scope of work, rules of engagement and working
> methodologies is available below. This information will be posted on our dedicated
> wiki page
> <https://community.icann.org/display/acctcrosscomm/Legal+SubTeam>for full
> reference.
> Thanks
> Best regards
> León
> ---
>
> *Scope of work*
>
>    - Adler & Colvin will be the primary source of advice on corporate
>    governance law and California not-for-profit law.
>    - Sidley & Austin will be addressing international law
>    and jurisdiction issues and any additional topic, as deemed appropriate.
>
> *Rules of Engagement & Working Methodologies*
>
> COMMUNICATIONS & COORDINATION
>
>    - All formal requests, including follow-up clarifications, are made
>    in writing and communicated through the public mailing list
>    ccwg-accountability5 at icann.org – public archives available at
>    http://mm.icann.org/pipermail/ccwg-accountability5/
>    - All weekly calls to be recorded, transcribed and archived in the
>    public wiki space.
>    - Law firms report to the CCWG-Accountability and receive instructions
>    from the legal executive sub team only. Legal Executive Subteam Members
>    include: León Sánchez (lead);  Athina Fragkouli; Robin Gross; David
>    McAuley; Sabine Meyer; Edward Morris; Greg Shatan and Samantha Eisner
>    (support);.
>    - Private coordination meetings between lawyers would be acceptable
>    and desirable.
>    - Information should flow freely between law firms.
>    - Should there be the need for a call between the available members of
>    the Executive Legal Subteam and any of the law firms in order to address
>    urgent matters without the ability to setup a public call, it will always
>    be required to provide proper debrief to the open list in a timely fashion.
>    This method will be exceptional.
>    - A single mailing-list will be used. Legal sub team members who are
>    not listed in the legal executive subteam have viewing rights to help
>    streamline communications. Posting privileges should carry request
>    privileges.
>    - The mailing-list remains open to any observers.
>    - Activities and requests will be documented on the dedicated wiki
>    page - https://community.icann.org/display/acctcrosscomm/Legal+SubTeam
>    - Legal sub team and law firms coordination call will be held on
>    Wednesdays at 15:00-16:00 UTC, starting on April 1. Calls will be open to
>    anyone, they will be recorded, transcribed and archived in the public wiki
>    space.
>
> REQUESTS FOR EXPERTISE
>
>    - No individual outside the executive legal sub team should send
>    requests to law firms.
>    - Law firms are to alert the legal executive sub team of any requests
>    made by individuals outside the legal executive sub team.
>    - During face-to-face meetings/calls, high level legal advice should
>    come in real time in reply to anyone raising a question within the
>    Charter’s scope.
>    - Legal Executive Subteam should flag any items that are for research.
>    - Legal Executive Subteam is expected to formulate questions into a
>    request for distribution in PDF or WORD format to obtain legal advice.
>    - Requests for legal advice should be numbered consecutively for
>    reference purposes.
>    - All requests will be archived in the public wiki space.
>
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>
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