[CWG-Stewardship] Sidley Austin LLP

[James Gannon]

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 at gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, March 09, 2015 6:42 PM
To: James Gannon
Cc: cwg-stewardship at 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 at cyberinvasion.net<mailto:james at 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 at syr.edu<mailto:mueller at 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 at icann.org<mailto:cwg-stewardship-bounces at icann.org> [mailto:cwg-stewardship-bounces at icann.org] On Behalf Of Jonathan Robinson
Sent: Sunday, March 8, 2015 5:46 PM
To: cwg-stewardship at icann.org<mailto:cwg-stewardship at 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

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