Sponsoring Organization's Proposal
Proposal by dotLaw, Inc. for gTLD - .law
I. SPONSORING ORGANIZATION
STRUCTURE
C1. Please submit a comprehensive description of the
structure and nature of the sponsoring organization and the manner in which
that organization will conduct its operations, including policy‑formulation
activities. We strongly recommend retaining professional legal assistance to
aid in the formulation of your Sponsoring Organization's Proposal and
accompanying documents.
Currently the Internet
functions across several restricted and unrestricted generic top-level domains
(gTLD’s). The legal community along with other professional communities has
slowly become fractionated across the spectrum of unrestricted gTLD’s. Inherent
in this approach is the fact that these domains are unregulated and sites vary
widely in their quality of content. Adherence to ICANN policies and ethics is
voluntary and not well observed. In addition the retrieval of information from
the myriad of locations by conventional search engines is incomplete and
relatively non-specific.
Our proposal for dotLaw
is focused on the creation of a new gTLD that is sponsored and restrictive in
nature to serve the international legal community. Our proposed TLD string is .law. The term “Law “ is internationally recognized as to purpose and
will not be subject to confusion. Other
character strings have attachment to the legal community such as “JD”,
“lawyer”, “laws”, and “legal” but the terms may not be recognized
internationally such as JD which maybe LLB in another country or are more
limiting in scope or subject to confusion.
The .law gTLD would serve the legal community as a whole
including private practice attorneys, corporate counsel, community legal
services, law students and the legal vendor community (i.e., legal research)
and other ancillary support services (court reporters, trial graphic, copy
centers, etc.). Today, the Internet
community can locate an attorney by knowing of an attorney search site or by
knowing the name of a firm and searching for that web site. However, for the
everyday consumer the size and organization of the .com, .net, and .org domains
for legal services is not conducive to searches that are efficient or
comprehensive. A simple search of
“law.com” produces over four thousands sites which range from an individual’s comments
to law firm sites to legal publications to individual lawyer sites.
Additionally, many of the attorneys and law firms are not making effective use
of the Internet nor is the .com space structured to assist them or the
community in doing so.
A specific .law gTLD
domain offers the unique opportunity to evaluate the role of a new domain in a
controlled and measured way given that the legal community is already somewhat
defined by the legal profession as a whole.
The concept of a managed domain will offer the ability to control all
aspects of both the launch and subsequent management of this new space. With
careful planning and input from the internet community we feel our proposed dotLaw
structure will enhance the legal community and not jeopardize the existence of
the current legal .com, .net, and .org domains. Migration to .law will
proceed, as the users perceive the advantages to .law we outline below.
Another key element for the
successful management of this new domain is input from the professionals who
are the backbone of the international legal community. .law will be dedicated to meeting the
needs and objectives of the international community through unique alliances as
a mechanism for input with the various bar associations around the world
including but not limited to the following:
·
American Bar Association
(“ABA”);
·
State and local bar
associations (Virginia Bar Association) in the U.S.;
·
Law Society of England
and Wales;
·
The General Council of
the Bar;
·
Bar Council of India;
·
Bar Association of
India;
·
Colegio Publico de
Abogados;
·
Asociacion de Abogados
de Buenos Aires;
·
Law Society of South
Africa;
·
Iniurcolleguia
(International Law College);
·
Moskovskaya Oblastnaya
Kollegiya Advokatov (Moscow Region College of Advocates)
Note:
This list is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all associations or
countries but rather examples of alliance partners. Additionally, we have had
an initial discussion with the ABA and they have requested information on our
proposal to learn more about what a sponsorship role would involve. We have not entered into discussions with
other bar associations at this time. Therefore, we do not have a firm
commitment from any bar associations in the U.S. or internationally. However, as our discussions proceed, we will
update this application.
The .law domain
affords ICANN the opportunity to evaluate how a sponsored and restricted domain
can involve as alliance partners the bar association’s from around the world in
the policy-formulation process. DotLaw
will structure and manage the domain for the benefit of the legal profession,
the legal vendor community, and the Internet community at large. We will
accomplish these goals through the establishment of policies, which are
consistent with the charter of international bar associations, policies and
goals of ICANN, along with the vision and business values of .law.
As our concept for the .law
domain is a restricted legal community focus, we will develop and implement
policies that are both consistent with ICANN’s current policies and our
registry operator dotMD to enhance the functionality and content of the
domain. Our broad operating policies
will consist of the following:
·
Adoption of existing
policies being followed by ICANN in administering delegations of TLD names of
the Internet Domain Names Systems (DNS);
·
.law domain names can initially be registered by dotLaw
as well as a number of licensed competitive third party domain name registrar;.
·
.law domain names cannot be re-registered except through
the above channels;
·
.law will provide professionals five e-mail addresses and a
10meg web page for life (1);
·
.law will withhold certain domain names for indexing legal
terms and structuring the domain;
·
.law domain structure will allow efficient key word access
to legal topics, resources and links;
·
.law will create the domain encyclopedia to enhance search
capabilities;
·
.law will provide direct links to individual subscriber
domains by specialty, geography, etc.;
·
.law will provide direct and targeted search capabilities
of legal content;
·
.law will have appropriate Privacy and Security policies;
·
.law will provide first right of refusal to all law firms
to secure their firm names that had been previously taken on .com;
·
.law content policies will provide certainty as to
structure and reliability of content;
·
.law content will be consistent with bar associations’
ethical guidelines and “Association Mission and Goals”;
·
.law will establish a licensing verification process;
·
.law will have a Chief Verification Officer;
·
.law will provide free domain names to community legal
services organizations;
·
.law will support other community based legal programs
(i.e., Pro Bono) within the domain;
·
.law will reserve the right to terminate any domains that
operate inconsistent with our policies.
Note:
(1) We understand that the ICANN contractual arrangements may have a defined
period, but domain names will, we assume, be transferred to other operators. Therefore, for the consumer, it is an e-mail
for life.
The values of the dotLaw
managers and of the .law domain will be to promote honesty and ethical
conduct throughout the entire domain. Our goal will be to create a unique
electronic legal space, which is both comprehensive in scope and unparalleled
in quality when compared to what is found on unrestricted gTLD today. The
approach of building a restricted sponsored domain affords us the opportunity
and the advantage of starting from the ground up with a consistency throughout
the entire effort.
We see the benefits and enhancement to the “.law Domain Values” actively involving the bar associations in the policy formulation process. When you consider, for example the ABA’s Mission Statement and Association Goals, the consistency with the development and focus of a sponsored domain for legal professionals is clear:
ABA Mission Statement:
The Mission of the American Bar Association is to be the national
representative of the legal profession, serving the public and the profession
by promoting justice, professional excellence and respect for the law.
ABA - Association Goals
· Goal I. To promote improvements in the American system of justice.
· Goal II. To promote meaningful access to legal representation and the American system of justice for all persons regardless of their economic or social condition.
· Goal III. To provide ongoing leadership in improving the law to serve the changing needs of society.
· Goal IV. To increase public understanding of and respect for the law, the legal process, and the role of the legal profession.
· Goal V. To achieve the highest standards of professionalism, competence and ethical conduct.
· Goal VI. To serve as the national representative of the legal profession.
· Goal VII. To provide benefits, programs and services which promote professional growth and enhance the quality of life of the members.
· Goal VIII. To advance the rule of law in the world.
· Goal IX. To promote full and equal participation in the legal profession by minorities, women and persons with disabilities.
· Goal X. To preserve and enhance the ideals of the legal profession as a common calling and its dedication to public service.
· Goal XI. To preserve the independence of the legal profession and the judiciary as fundamental to a free society.
The final element to the .law
domain is our corporate structure and registry operator. .law is currently forming a
for-profit corporation called “dotLaw, Inc.”. While the formal corporate structure of dotLaw, Inc. is
still being established, we have identified the individuals that will fulfill
key management positions, the consultants that will serve as advisors, and
entered into an business arrangement where our registry operator has a minority
ownership interest. DotLaw has
also obtained the commitment of outside investors to consider fully
capitalizing the corporation pending selection of dotLaw by ICANN and
clarification of the gTLD contract (see attached James Richardson & Sons
letter). We are firmly convinced our
team and structure provide a fundamentally sound business platform for the
successful and reliable continued management of the .law domain.
Our registry operator will be dotMD.
We believe there is no
better partner for us than dotMD.
dotMd is the only registry operator that is currently operating a
domain dedicated to another professional community. dotMD’s business culture, values and policies are
consistent with ours and that of operating a domain for professionals. For example, dotMD operates the
domain consistent with Continuing Medical Education requirements of the medical
profession and has a goal to manage the domain with an appropriate stewardship
expected by the community they serve. dotMD
is a functioning professional registry that has the industry and technical
expertise within their organization to ensure the highest level of
uninterrupted service to our users.
In summary, dotLaw is
both a company and an initiative to improve the quality and functionality of
the international legal community on the Internet. Since funding for such an
endeavor is not available from any particular worldwide source at present, the
users of this centralized and specific new legal domain will need to support
the initiative with their own subscription and participation. dotLaw is
our proposal for a corporate entity that will serve as the vehicle and catalyst
to allow this to happen. We feel that the .law gTLD which emerges from
this effort will be the professional embodiment of the needs and wishes of the
entire international legal community and will continue to evolve itself through
the efforts and involvement of the domain Board as those requirements
inevitably change. In the course of doing this we feel that the dotLaw
model will optimize the conditions necessary to ensure the orderly introduction
and stable and reliable operation of this new international .law gTLD.
The overall experience of both dotLaw and dotMD over the upcoming
years will also allow ICANN to assess the potential of a new restricted and
dedicated gTLD to serve as a centralized and unified international space for
the conduct of all the activities associated with a major professional group.
The following documents
should be attached to the description:
• Articles of incorporation, association, etc.;
• Bylaws or any similar organizational document;
• List of persons presently on the supervising Board of the organization (or to be initially on the Board); and their resumes;
• To the extent applicable and not clear from the attached documents, the description should address the following topics in detail.
C2. Organization
Information. Principal location,
legal status of the organization, laws under which it is organized, type of
organization (for profit, non‑profit, corporation, association, etc.).
dotLaw is being
registered as a Delaware “for profit” corporation. The corporation’s principal
location is McLean, VA. dotMD’s
domain server will be located at Exodus, a well-known “tier one” provider of
secure Internet hosting located in Sterling, VA. The current shareholders of dotLaw are W. McKay Henderson,
James D. Fonger, MD, and dotMD.
We anticipate the articles of
incorporation will be completed by the end of October 2000. The articles of incorporation and bylaws for
dotLaw will be forwarded to ICANN at that time.
C3. Organization
Structure. Size of organization,
number of officers, directors and advisors, roles/duties of directors and
officers and other staff, supporting and/or contributing organizations,
affiliates, membership.
The dotLaw corporate officers, who make up the
management structure, include the following positions. The roles of each
position are self explanatory as below:
·
Chief Executive Officer;
·
Chief Operating Officer;
·
Chief Financial Officer;
·
Chief Verification
Officer (for credentialing domain applicants);
·
Chief Technical Officer;
·
Vice President of Sales
and Marketing.
The dotLaw domain
Board of Directors will consist of the following:
·
Chief Executive Officer
·
James D. Fonger, MD
(founder)
·
W. McKay Henderson
(founder)
·
Representative of dotMD
·
Representative of
investors
·
Representative of large
law firm
·
Representative of
independent practitioners
·
Representative of
a bar association
Interviews are currently
underway for the Chief Executive Officer. Candidates being considered are both
lawyers as well as being well versed in the information technology realm. A
final decision will be made during the negotiation period with ICANN once the
outcome of the application is more assured.
Mr. Henderson is a Partner
in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Financial Advisory Services Practice in the
Washington, D.C. office and is the National Director of the Health Care Fraud
and Abuse Investigations Practice. Mr.
Henderson has been involved in numerous investigations and analytical reviews
of financial information, special/forensic evaluations and enhancements to
internal controls, and the analysis and calculation of economic damages. Many of his engagements typically require
the assessment of business practices, financial performance and market
conditions. He has provided expert testimony in the United States District
Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Court of Common Pleas in
Montgomery, Philadelphia and Bucks County, Superior Court of New Jersey and
Delaware and U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District.
His clients are primarily
the top 100 law firms and General Counsel of the Fortune 500.
Mr. Henderson has been
providing litigation consulting services to the legal community for over 16
years.
Mr. Henderson graduated with
a BSBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a Certified Public Accountant in the
District of Columbia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina and a Certified Fraud
Examiner. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public
Accounts, the Pennsylvania and North Carolina Institutes of Certified Public
Accounts and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.
Dr. Fonger has been a
practicing cardio thoracic surgeon in the Washington, D.C. area and has also
been actively involved in a number of Internet projects as they relate to
medicine. This included the development of a real time Internet based registry
for cardiac surgery that collected data worldwide as it was created on a single
server. That exposure introduced him early on to the concept of a managed
professional domain through some of his colleagues already in the dotMD company.
He has advised a number of medical device companies regarding the business
development of markets for their products and currently is a reviewer for an
entirely Internet based journal called Heart Surgery Forum. He maintains a
close relationship with dotMD to continue learning the issues
surrounding the management of a professional restricted sponsored domain and
hopes to apply these lessons along with additional innovations specific to the
legal profession to the dotLaw gTLD.
Kevin Scott (Chief Technology
Officer)
Kevin Scott is a Computer
Scientist with expertise in Internet based distributed computing and
communication. He currently serves as
Director of Engineering at a privately held Internet software company
developing Enterprise Decision Portal Software. Prior to that, Mr. Scott spent
two years conducting telemedicine research at the U.S. Government's National
Library of Medicine where he built prototype systems aimed at providing
efficient, accurate and precise access to medical information via the Internet.
Mr. Scott is also co-inventor
of software that allows IP networked computers to cooperatively monitor complex
real-time systems. In 1995 this
software was adopted by NASA as a mechanism to distribute real-time information
in the Space Shuttle Mission Control Center where it currently acquires 28,000
Space Shuttle sensor values per second and distributes them across the Internet
to research facilities worldwide. This
software is also in use in the Hubble
Space Telescope Control
Center, in Russia's space program, in a commercial Satellite Control Center and
is a component of the on-board software for the International Space Station.
Mr. Scott has a master's degree in Computer Science from the University of
Illinois.
Advisor
Scott Charney (Security
and Privacy Advisor)
Scott Charney is a principal
at PriceWaterhouseCoopers where he provides clients with comprehensive
computer security services. More specifically, he and his staff help
clients design and build security systems from scratch, test existing systems,
respond to specific security related incidents, and assist law firms in
technology related litigation. Prior to joining PWC, Scott served as Chief of
the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS), Criminal
Division, U.S. Department of Justice. In this role, Mr. Charney supervised
twenty-two federal prosecutors who investigated and prosecuted national and
international hacker cases, economic espionage cases, and violations of the
federal criminal and copyright and trademark laws. He co-authored the current
federal computer crime statute, the current federal sentencing guidelines for
computer crimes, the federal guidelines for searching and seizing computers, and
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Guidelines for the
Security of Information Systems. He also served on the Clinton Administration’s
Privacy Working Group, led the United States Delegation to the Organization for
Economic Cooperation on national cryptography policy, chaired the G8 subgroup
on high tech crime, and the served on the Advisory Board of the Computer
Emergency Response Team at Carnegie Mellon University. Mr. Charney will advise
the dotLaw gTLD on security for the transfer of critical legal documents
across the domain.
Susan Manch (law
practice management consultant)
Susan Manch is a principal in
the legal management consulting firm of Shannon and Manch, LLP. She has over
twenty years of consulting and marketing experience and currently serves a
client base that encompasses over 50 of the top 200 law firms in the world.
Within her firm, she heads up the law firm consulting practice, specializing in
assisting large law firms with attorney management matters. She has been a Dean
at both Georgetown University and Trinity College, a top sales and marketing
executive with SYSCO Corporation, and management consultant to law firms and
legal employees. She holds a masters degree from the University of Virginia and
has completed postgraduate work in marketing and organizational development. A
frequent presenter for the ABA, local bar associations, and the National
Association for Law Placement, she and her business partner co-authored a book
for the American bar Association last year entitled, “Hiring Lawyers”. She has
written articles for Legal Management Magazine (a publication of the ALA), the
Legal Times, The Practical Lawyer, and the NALP Bulletin.
C4. Organization Purpose. Functions and mission of the organization,
definition of community to be served (if any), method of ensuring operation in
the interest of the stakeholders of the community to be served and the
at large.
.law will be the domain for the legal professional and the
supporting community.
Our
Mission is to develop and manage a gTLD domain for the legal profession and its
support community that demonstrates the domain’s commitment to the legal
community at large. This will be accomplished through an understanding of the
professional guidelines and policies that are required to achieve a high level
of ethical conduct throughout the domain.
We will also ensure the provision of an exemplary level of technical
service and support as would be expected by the Internet community at large and
would be consistent with the goals and policies of ICANN.
The community to be served by
this new .law gTLD is the entire universe of people who access legal services
of any kind over the Internet. Currently this information is distributed
throughout multiple locations across several gTLD’s. No possibility exists for
the formation of a true legal community in this format. The migration of
practitioners and services to a single cross referenced domain such as dotLaw
would go a long way to addressing this very real need. The unique indexing
function, which can be developed and utilized within a single managed gTLD,
obviates the need to use a conventional search engine within the domain and
assures that all the references within the domain will be found and they will
be relevant to the question. The community also means having a charitable
dimension to the domain’s legal offerings, which will support services such as
Legal Aid and help with a more equitable distribution of legal services.
The legal community consists
of the following:
·
Attorneys in private
practice
·
Law firms
·
Corporate attorneys
·
Government attorneys
·
Public defenders
·
Community legal services
·
Law students
·
Legal research vendors
·
Court Reporters
·
Trial graphics
·
Copy services
·
Continuing education
services
·
Bar associations
·
Individuals needing
legal representation
·
Individuals seeking
legal research
.law will be managed as a “professional” domain. The stakeholders will play an active role in
policy decisions that are made relating to the domain dotLaw. A broad
cross section of individuals representing all facets of the legal domain will
be included on the corporate board and participate in its governance.
We intend to ensure
operations are in the interest of the community through the establishment and
enforcement of policies and procedures that the community and the various bar
associations have input to. Some examples of these P&P would be the following:
·
We intend to follow and
comply with all ICANN policies;
·
We will require
verification that an individual is in fact a licensed attorney through our
verification process with enforcement by our Chief Verification Officer;
·
We will not allow resale
of domains except through dotLaw to avoid cyber squatting;
·
We will hold back
certain domain names to allow for creation of the domain’s legal index;
·
As discussed more in the
policy section, we will have input from our users and the local and national
Bar Associations.
Further, our corporate
governance will include a Board of Directors with community representations and
the appropriate fiduciary responsibility of the corporation.
C5. Appropriateness of
Community. If the organization is
intended to serve or represent a particular community, define the community and
explain why that definition fits the TLD proposal.
As outlined previously in our
response to question C4., we define the community served by dotLaw as
follows:
We define the .law community
to represent all the legal professionals involved in the practice of law around
the world. One of the reasons we
selected .law was that it is an internationally recognizable and
definable term that defines the world legal community by just one word. Professionals within this domain will be
required (the exact requirements vary by country) to complete a law degree
course, pass a Bar exam or have some defined years of training, before being
admitted to the Bar or being allowed to practice. Legal professionals are also then governed by various ethical
guidelines/rules of conduct such as the ABA Model Rules of Professional
Conduct. The extent and content of this
guidance will vary by country.
Attorneys will also typically join a Bar Association, even though there
may not be a statutory requirement for their respective geographic area. Some examples of associations include:
·
American Bar Association
(‘ABA”);
·
Law Society of England
and Wales;
·
Bar Association of
India;
·
Colegio Publico de
Abogados;
·
Moskovskaya Oblastnaya
Kollegiya Advokatov (Moscow Region College of Advocates)
The legal profession can then
be further subdivided into various areas of practice. For example, using the United States as an example, lawyers may
be:
·
In private practice
·
Corporate attorneys
·
Government attorneys
·
Public defenders
·
Community service
attorneys
·
In other professional
service organizations (i.e., consulting firms)
The international legal
internet community we envision has the unique characteristics of a community of
professionals governed by legal ethics and guidelines but supported by vendors
that are unique in services provided such as legal research, court reporters,
continuing legal education, document management, trial exhibits, etc. The Internet at large usually searches in
this community for the selection of an attorney or research/background on
certain legal issues (i.e., trust/estates, divorce, corporate issues, etc.).
This results in a typical search of roughly 20% to 30% of all available URL’s
and produces many irrelevant subjects, which have a loose relationship to one
of the keywords. The dotLaw
community is indexed and searched only within itself for all relevant legal
services and referrals. The relationships between topics within the domain are
“spidered” in a matrix of direct referencing which will be created at the time
of customer registration and managed by dotLaw.
The legal community consists
of the following:
·
Law students
·
Legal research vendors
·
Court Reporters
·
Trial graphics
·
Copy services
·
Continuing education
services
·
Bar associations
·
Individuals needing legal
representation
·
Individuals seeking
legal research
.law will be managed as an international comprehensive
“professional” domain. We intend to manage this site with the highest degree of
professionalism, which embodies the overall community we will serve. We cannot
imagine a constituency with more potential for feedback from its stakeholders
than a legal domain by nature of who the customers are and what they do for
their livelihood. If dotLaw does not operate the .law domain in a
manner that is consistent with the interests of the international legal
community then the stakeholders will automatically exert the necessary control
to correct this through the board positions outlined in section C3.
While the international legal
community is readily identifiable, we are reminded that it also has the
characteristic of being relatively unstructured and with no central mechanism
of organization. If you where to search
“law.com”, the search would identify over 4,000 sites that have a broad
spectrum of subjects. If an individual
wanted to search for a lawyer, after entering lawyers, the search would
identify over 11,000 sites. One very important attribute that can be managed in
a dedicated gTLD is indexing by both subject and geography. Geographic requests
can be defined broadly by limiting an index search to a country or highly
specified by requesting one state or even a particular zip code. Our vision for
.law is to establish a domain that is truly managed as to both subject
and geography, which will allow the domain indexing to be highly specific and
searching to be very targeted. Additionally, through the sponsorship of allied
associations, the needs and requirements of this new virtual legal community
will be automatically embedded in the domain management structure. Violations
or distortions of the domain regulations or policies by a user can ultimately
be enforced if required by canceling that IP address on the domain name
server. The uniqueness of this proposal
for ICANN will be the ability to see and monitor the overall impact of a new
gTLD on a defined professional community by implementing a restricted,
sponsored, and managed domain.
C6. Representation. Manner in which the organization will represent and
take input from community to be served, the categories of stakeholder to be
included in the organization.
The community of stakeholders
will have direct input to the management and direction of the domain by their
seats on the Board of Directors outlined in C3. The legal community at large
will have input to the organization both through these representatives as well
as directly to dotLaw by emailing “comments@thedomain.law”.
C7. Openness and Transparency. Measures taken to promote openness and transparency,
access to information, web site use, public posting of information, meeting
minutes, notice and comment provisions.
The legal community will be
able to follow issues related to the domain function and management through
board meeting minutes posted on the domain site. This will include notice and
comment provisions as appropriate to policy and function of the domain. Input
from this feedback loop will be considered at the board meetings along with input
from the attendees. More immediate issues developing between board meetings
will be managed by dotLaw and posted for comment in a similar fashion.
C8. Initial Directors and
Staff. The identity and
qualifications of the initial directors and staff.
The directors from dotLaw
will be selected by the company and will be qualified by virtue of their
positions outlined in C3. The directors from the affiliated organizations will
be selected through their own internal processes and recommended to dotLaw
for board membership. The dotLaw staff will be managed by the company.
C9. Selection of
Directors, Officers, Members, Staff, etc.
Eligibility, method of selection, term of service, compensation, liability,
conflicts of interest, resignation, removal, vacancies.
Selection is outlined in C8.
Terms of service initially will be 2 years on the board. Compensation for
outside affiliates initially will be travel expenses only and this will be
re-evaluated further based on the workload that these positions ultimately
entail. Liability will be covered by the dotLaw corporate policy for the
domain. Conflicts of interest will initially be vetted by the sponsoring
organizations and then disclosed by the affiliate members when they are
appointed to the board. Resignations and vacancies will be managed by the
affiliates as needed. Decisions on removal will be made by private consultation
between dotLaw and the affiliate organization and handled on an
individual basis. Participation by affiliates on the board should be viewed as
a form of virtual legal community service and done in the spirit of public
service for the good of the international legal domain. For law firms this will
likely be a position of prestige for the member and the firm.
C10. Policy‑Making
Procedure. Provide a detailed
description of the process for formulating policies for the TLD, including a
detailed description of the requirements for adoption of different types of
policy.
Outlined in detail in C16.2
and C16.3 below.
C11. Meetings and
Communication. Frequency of meetings,
location of meetings, provisions for telephone meetings, other methods of
communication, and generation of minutes for meetings.
Overall dotLaw domain
Board of Directors meetings will be held quarterly in Washington, D.C. Corporate
business meetings will be held monthly and separately as is standard for the
business management of issues specific to the functioning of the dotLaw
corporation alone. Conference calling and email will serve as the tools used
for dealing with more urgent domain Board of Directors issues between quarterly
meetings. Minutes related to the management of the domain discussed in the
domain Board of Directors meetings will be posted for comment on the dotLaw
site.
C12. Fiscal Information. Initial budget, expenses, existing capital, and
sources of revenue, accounting, audit, annual report and annual statement.
We have developed an initial
pro forma income statement (See Exhibit A ) based on our knowledge of the
potential market, actual experiences of dotMD during their start-up
period, current registry fees, planned staffing structure and initial
commitment levels by our investor.
Our projections show that
proposed investor funding is adequate to fund all operating requirements in the
first two years and given conservative growth percentages, we expect to be
profitable by our third year and have positive cash flow from operations.
Our assumptions used in the
projection were as follows:
·
Six month start-up
period to establish business, hire employees, develop interfaces with dotMD and
develop marketing program. We
anticipate the site will be open within the six months, but do not plan to
fully launch our marketing program until the site is up and tested.
·
Estimated market share
percentages based on experiences of dotMD and anticipated focus of .law
based on our research of the current .com market and discussions with law
firms (See Exhibit B). The size of the
market was based on the following estimates:
o
Lawyers in the United
States – 1,000,000
o
Lawyers Internationally
– 2,500,000
o
US Law Firms –44,000
o
International Law Firms
– research is on-going
o
Law Firm Vendors-United
States– 1,000
o
Annual Number of Law
Students – 5,000
Our
estimated market share percentages, which are conservative, show profitability
with less than a 5% market share. We
believe once the .law brand has been established and the community
actually experiences the benefits, our market share will increase significantly
above 5%.
·
We have assumed registry
fees of $100 just for the domain name and $450 for domain name and enhanced
legal specific web page development services.
These assumptions are based on review of current registry fees and dotMD’s
experiences.
·
Our operating expenses
are based on detailed discussions and the experiences of dotMD in their
start-up period. All expense categories
are estimates based on our anticipated staffing structure with the exception of
domain server fees, which are actual (e.g., $80,000 per month for the registry
at Exodus).
·
Attached in Exhibit C is
a letter of commitment from our investor.
While a specific funding level could not be discussed in the letter
until our opportunity with ICANN is better defined, we have had the discussions
about the amount of funding required in our first two years of operation. Our investor, pending award of the domain
for an appropriate period of time, is willing to move ahead at the required
funding levels.
dotLaw will engage the services of a Big Five accounting firm
to assist with the structuring of the accounting systems, control environment,
perform computer security assessments and an annual audit. We believe, given the fiduciary duty of a
sponsoring organization, that annual financial audits should be performed. Depending on the final agreement with ICANN,
dotLaw will provide appropriate financial information to ICANN. If
required, we may expand our auditor’s scope of service to include a quarterly
review statement. Our investor will
also be actively involved in the financial operations of dotLaw and
require similar financial reporting.
Our Board, which will have representatives of the community, will review
financial information as part of our regularly scheduled quarterly meetings.
We recognize that the
long-term reliable functioning of the dotLaw domain is inextricably
bound to the financial and technical capabilities of both the sponsoring
organization as well as the supporting registrar organization. We feel the
projections outlined above are purposely conservative given the worldwide
domain name registration experience to date. In addition we feel the dotMD
real market experience that they have shared with us in confidence has allowed
us to be much more focused and accurate in our financial assumptions than might
normally be the case if we were only estimating these projections. It is
important to note that although currently the dotMD financials are
proprietary, that if we progress with dotLaw to the next level of
discussions with ICANN, dotMD has agreed to meet with ICANN to supply
this information in confidence at that time. In addition, their site can be
accessed today for initial information at www.thedomain.md
C13. Liability. Liability of the organization, directors, officers,
and staff.
The liability of the
organization and its members will be restricted to that of the dotLaw
corporation as the legal entity that manages all aspects of the .law
gTLD. DotLaw will obtain the
appropriate types and amount of liability insurance based on recommendations by
dotLaw legal and insurance advisors.
We anticipate our insurance will include officers and directors
liability, cyber insurance and life insurance on the principals.
C14. Amendment of Articles
of Incorporation or Bylaws.
Procedures for making amendments to the articles of incorporation, bylaws, and
other organizational documents.
Articles of incorporation,
bylaws and organizational documents relating to this and amendment procedures
will all be supplied when the incorporation of dotLaw has been
completed.
C15. Reconsideration and
Review. Any policy for allowing
reconsideration and review of organization policy or implementation decisions.
Reconsideration and review of
any and all aspects of the domain management policy and procedures will be
under the direct jurisdiction of the
domain Board of Directors.
C16. List and describe in detail the areas over which a
delegation of policy‑formulation authority is sought. For each area in
which policy authority is sought, please address:
C16.1.
Scope of authority sought;
The .law domain will
implement and follow the current policies being followed by ICANN in
administering delegations of the gTLD’s and the Internet Domain Names System
(DNS). We also understand the ICANN
Board may consider modifying or enhancing existing policies in the future. dotLaw will be active in the public
comment period during discussion of those changes and responsive to the needs
and desires of the stakeholders. We will
therefore also implement a policy to adopt any changes to existing ICANN
policies as they occur.
dotLaw will seek authority for various policies required to
properly “manage” the domain in a way to ensure organized delegation of domain
activities. This will be done for the express benefit of the .law domain
community and to maintain the appropriate professionalism required by all the
various stakeholders. As an integral
part of our sponsorship philosophy, we will also seek the active participation
of the various Bar Associations and professional organizations around the world
in the establishment and modifications of our domain policies.
.law will seek specific authorization for the following
policies:
·
.law domain names cannot be re-registered except by dotLaw;
·
.law initial domain name registrations can be done by any
duely licensed competitive third party registrar;
·
.law will withhold certain domain names for management and
structuring of the domain;
·
.law will have appropriate Privacy, Professional Ethics and
Security policies;
·
.law will provide first right of refusal to law firms to
secure their full firm names;
·
.law content will be consistent with bar associations’
ethical guidelines;
·
.law will establish a licensing verification process;
·
.law will have a Chief Verification Officer;
·
.law will provide free domain names to community legal
services organizations;
·
.law will support other community based legal programs
(i.e., Pro Bono) within the domain;
·
.law will reserve the right to terminate any domains that
operate in a manner that is inconsistent with our overall domain policies
determined by the domain Board of Directors;
·
.law will be the only registry but will allow and work with
multiple licensed registrars around the world.
Although we have requested
authorization for these policies, our general operating principles will be
consistent with ICANN’s philosophies and policies.
C16.2.
Reasons/justifications for seeking authority;
The critical element to the
successful implementation of a new TLD will be the appropriate management and
structure of the domain from the inception.
This will enhance the use of the domain for the users and ensure the
delegation to this domain in an organized fashion as not to jeopardize the
stability of the Internet. Our concept
of management of the domain is consistent with the responsibilities for service
to the community, a core policy of ICANN.
An example of our approach
is not to allow the re-registration of .law domains. This philosophy helps to limit cyber
squatting and is part of our methodology to “ promote orderly registrations of
names during the initial phases” of implementation. This policy coupled with specific licensing verification procedures
under the direction of our chief verification officer will also provide us a
mechanism to monitor domain names. These policies along with UDRP are also
integral to our efforts to limit risks to intellectual property rights. The final element we believe that must be
considered, in distinction from stability concerns associated with the initial
phases of registration within the TLD, is the technical capabilities of the
registry. We will ensure stability
through our registry partner dotMD whose domain name server resides in a
Tier 1 Exodus hosting facility in Sterling, VA where it is connected to the
Internet backbone.
While there has also been
much discussion on the protection of intellectual property as a part of this
process, there has been little consensus on what approach should be taken. However, one point seems clear. The type of gTLD will be a key factor in
determining the types of protections required.
While there will always be some disputes, given that the targeted focus
of .law will be legal professionals and law firms, the risk is somewhat
less than in a traditional commercial site.
As the sponsoring organization, we will work with our legal counsel and
appropriate representatives of our extended legal community to address these
issues consistent with direction supported by ICANN, the Names Council, and
various bar associations.
C16.3.
Method of guaranteeing that your organization will administer the policy in the
interest of the Internet at large; and
The policy formulation
process is critical to our successfully managing the .law domain. To this end, we would propose the creation
of a policy formulation committee within dotLaw. The policy committee will consist of key members of dotLaw
management team, a representative from our registry dotMD, representatives
of the international bar associations (i.e., ABA, State and Local) and outside
individuals selected from the legal profession that represents various users’
interest. (See C3) Examples of the
outside representatives may include but are not limited to attorneys from large
and small firms, legal administrators, law students, community legal services,
etc. The domain Board of Directors for dotLaw
will approve the promulgation of any policies. While the domain Board of dotLaw has not been
formalized at this time, we anticipate the structure to be as outlined in the
executive summary C3 above.
The policy-formulation
process will consist of the following:
1.
Any user as part of the
domain contract will be provided the opportunity to submit request for policy
development or modification through e-mail to our domain site (info@thelawdomain.net). We will
eventually set up a specific email address for policy requests.
2.
Proposed policies will
be drafted by the chair of the Policy Committee based on input from our
stakeholders and ICANN in response to issues related to management of the
domain.
3.
Proposed policies will
be reviewed by dotLaw legal advisors and modified as appropriate;
4.
A proposed policy will
then be submitted to the committee for review, the committee will discuss the
draft, finalize a draft policy and then post it on the dotLaw web site
for public comment.
5.
After 30 days, comments
will be reviewed and appropriate modifications made. If the policy has not substantially changed, then a final policy
will be drafted and approved by the committee. If significant changes are
required the draft may then be re-submitted to legal counsel and the full
committee.
6.
The proposed policy will
then be submitted to the domain Board of Directors of dotLaw for
approval.
7.
The final approved
policy will then be posted permanently on the web page.
This policy process will be
international. Stakeholders will be
provided the opportunity to participate by e-mail or by phone through our
customer service department. The
process will be modified as appropriate based on feed back from the community. Minutes of the meetings will
be maintained. If requested, these minutes and the public
comments will be provided to ICANN for review.
C16.4. Whether variation from existing ICANN policies is
intended at the opening of the new TLD.
There are no significant variations from ICANN policies
intended at the opening of this new international .law gTLD.
C17. Identification of
Registry Operator. Please list the
full legal name, principal address, and telephone and fax numbers, and e‑mail
address of the registry operator:
The initial registry operator
for the proposed TLD will be dotMD, Inc.
dotMD, Inc.
500 Sugar Mill Road
Suite 240-A
Atlanta, GA 30350
Phone (770) 408-2243
Fax (770) 649-4482
William R. Mayfield, MD
Executive Vice President and
Chief Operating Officer
bmayfield@thedomain.md
C18. Contract with
Registry Operator. Please attach one of the following:
C18.1. A copy of your contract with the selected registry
operator for provision of registry services;
C18.2.proposed terms for a contract (i.e. at least a
detailed term sheet) with a registry operator for provision of registry
services, proof of commitment from the registry operator for provision of
services under those proposed terms, and a notation of the estimated date of
entry into the contract; or
A
“letter of intent” (exhibit D) outlining the details of the term sheet for a
registry operator between dotMD and dotLaw is attached and dated
September 27th 2000. The important terms and conditions of the
relationship are specified for both parties and this will serve as the
framework for the contract, which will follow ICANN approval of the .law
TLD
C18.3. a statement that the sponsoring organization will
also serve as the registry operator for the proposed TLD. (In this case, the
sponsoring organization must prepare and submit the Registry Operator's
Proposal in addition to the Sponsoring Organization's Proposal.)
The
sponsoring organization, dotLaw has entered into a letter of intent to work with dotMD as our
registry.
By signing this proposal, the
undersigned attests, on behalf of the applicant(s), that the information
contained in this application, and all supporting documents included with this
application, are true and accurate to the best of applicant's knowledge.
_______________________________ __________________________
W. McKay Henderson______________ James D. Fonger, MD
Name (please print) Name (please print)
Founders_______________________
Title
dotLaw________________________
Name of Applicant Entity
September 30, 2000_____________
Date
(c) 2000 The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers
All rights reserved.
Updated August 15, 2000