I am happy to announce that effective today, Stephen LaPorte is joining the Foundation as legal counsel in the Legal and Community Advocacy team! Stephen has been interning with us for a semester, and we're thrilled that he's staying onboard. We went through a very competitive interview process and he was by far the best candidate for the role. One of the criteria for this role was that the candidate be a Wikimedian, and Stephen fits that neatly. *As a volunteer, he enjoys de-orphaning articles and cleaning up dead-end pages on the English Wikipedia. He also proofreads on the English Wikisource. He started contributing to Wikipedia in 2008 after working on [[w:Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve]] for a class project.*
You'll have the chance to meet him at the Berlin Hack-a-thon, or at Wikimania this summer. *A little bit of background on Stephen: he studied English and Latin at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. He is interested in copyright, privacy, and trademark law. During law school, he worked on the Hastings Communication and Entertainment Law Journal.*
Stephen will be helping out with contracts, content/community questions/issues, trademark approvals & licensing, trademark enforcement, and other general matters that come up for lawyers. Stephen will report to me.
This was an extremely competitive process, and we're very lucky to have him join us.
Kind Regards, Kelly
Congrats and welcome to Stephen. :-)
Could the LCA team expand a bit on the structure and division of roles in the team, please? In particular, how does the role of Legal Counsel differ from that of the General Counsel, how are those positions relate to the Direct of Community Advocacy and the Community Liaison, and what's the overall management structure of the team?
Thanks, Mike
On 15 May 2012, at 21:04, Kelly Kay wrote:
I am happy to announce that effective today, Stephen LaPorte is joining the Foundation as legal counsel in the Legal and Community Advocacy team! Stephen has been interning with us for a semester, and we're thrilled that he's staying onboard. We went through a very competitive interview process and he was by far the best candidate for the role. One of the criteria for this role was that the candidate be a Wikimedian, and Stephen fits that neatly. *As a volunteer, he enjoys de-orphaning articles and cleaning up dead-end pages on the English Wikipedia. He also proofreads on the English Wikisource. He started contributing to Wikipedia in 2008 after working on [[w:Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve]] for a class project.*
You'll have the chance to meet him at the Berlin Hack-a-thon, or at Wikimania this summer. *A little bit of background on Stephen: he studied English and Latin at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. He is interested in copyright, privacy, and trademark law. During law school, he worked on the Hastings Communication and Entertainment Law Journal.*
Stephen will be helping out with contracts, content/community questions/issues, trademark approvals & licensing, trademark enforcement, and other general matters that come up for lawyers. Stephen will report to me.
This was an extremely competitive process, and we're very lucky to have him join us.
Kind Regards, Kelly
-- Kelly Kay Deputy General Counsel Wikimedia Foundation
http://walk.avonfoundation.org/site/TR?px=6370274&pg=personal&fr_id=2173&s_src=BF_emailbadge http://walk.avonfoundation.org/site/TR?px=6370274&pg=personal&fr_id=2173&s_src=BF_emailbadge _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Think of LCA as a fork: at the top, the General Counsel. Down one tine of the fork, the Deputy GC, the Legal Counsel, and the Junior Counsel.
Down the other tine of the fork, the Director, Community Advocacy, and the Community Liaison(s)/Advocates. Sort of straddling the middle is Daisy, our paralegal.
Does that help?
pb ___________________ Philippe Beaudette Director, Community Advocacy Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
415-839-6885, x 6643
philippe@wikimedia.org
On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 1:10 PM, Michael Peel <michael.peel@wikimedia.org.uk
wrote:
Congrats and welcome to Stephen. :-)
Could the LCA team expand a bit on the structure and division of roles in the team, please? In particular, how does the role of Legal Counsel differ from that of the General Counsel, how are those positions relate to the Direct of Community Advocacy and the Community Liaison, and what's the overall management structure of the team?
Thanks, Mike
On 15 May 2012, at 21:04, Kelly Kay wrote:
I am happy to announce that effective today, Stephen LaPorte is joining the Foundation as legal counsel in the Legal and Community Advocacy
team!
Stephen has been interning with us for a semester, and we're thrilled
that
he's staying onboard. We went through a very competitive interview
process
and he was by far the best candidate for the role. One of the criteria
for
this role was that the candidate be a Wikimedian, and Stephen fits that neatly. *As a volunteer, he enjoys de-orphaning articles and cleaning
up
dead-end pages on the English Wikipedia. He also proofreads on the
English
Wikisource. He started contributing to Wikipedia in 2008 after working
on
[[w:Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve]] for a class project.*
You'll have the chance to meet him at the Berlin Hack-a-thon, or at Wikimania this summer. *A little bit of background on Stephen: he studied English and Latin at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and law
at
the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. He is
interested
in copyright, privacy, and trademark law. During law school, he worked
on
the Hastings Communication and Entertainment Law Journal.*
Stephen will be helping out with contracts, content/community questions/issues, trademark approvals & licensing, trademark
enforcement,
and other general matters that come up for lawyers. Stephen will report
to
me.
This was an extremely competitive process, and we're very lucky to have him join us.
Kind Regards, Kelly
-- Kelly Kay Deputy General Counsel Wikimedia Foundation
<
http://walk.avonfoundation.org/site/TR?px=6370274&pg=personal&fr_id=...
<
http://walk.avonfoundation.org/site/TR?px=6370274&pg=personal&fr_id=...
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(PS - i should say that this is an organizational description only - from a FUNCTIONAL perspective, the fork analogy goes out the window, and a group of flexible staff members comes into play. Effectively speaking, I could work immediately with any of the attorneys (and am) on projects, and they could work with me or Maggie. We don't get really hung up on titles within the team. Maggie and I view our roles and enhancing/supporting/amplifying the work of the team of attorneys. I know they view their roles as supporting the work of the community. So it all works out).
pb ___________________ Philippe Beaudette Director, Community Advocacy Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
415-839-6885, x 6643
philippe@wikimedia.org
On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 1:18 PM, Philippe Beaudette philippe@wikimedia.orgwrote:
Think of LCA as a fork: at the top, the General Counsel. Down one tine of the fork, the Deputy GC, the Legal Counsel, and the Junior Counsel.
Down the other tine of the fork, the Director, Community Advocacy, and the Community Liaison(s)/Advocates. Sort of straddling the middle is Daisy, our paralegal.
Does that help?
pb ___________________ Philippe Beaudette Director, Community Advocacy Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
415-839-6885, x 6643
philippe@wikimedia.org
On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 1:10 PM, Michael Peel < michael.peel@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:
Congrats and welcome to Stephen. :-)
Could the LCA team expand a bit on the structure and division of roles in the team, please? In particular, how does the role of Legal Counsel differ from that of the General Counsel, how are those positions relate to the Direct of Community Advocacy and the Community Liaison, and what's the overall management structure of the team?
Thanks, Mike
On 15 May 2012, at 21:04, Kelly Kay wrote:
I am happy to announce that effective today, Stephen LaPorte is joining the Foundation as legal counsel in the Legal and Community Advocacy
team!
Stephen has been interning with us for a semester, and we're thrilled
that
he's staying onboard. We went through a very competitive interview
process
and he was by far the best candidate for the role. One of the
criteria for
this role was that the candidate be a Wikimedian, and Stephen fits that neatly. *As a volunteer, he enjoys de-orphaning articles and cleaning
up
dead-end pages on the English Wikipedia. He also proofreads on the
English
Wikisource. He started contributing to Wikipedia in 2008 after working
on
[[w:Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve]] for a class project.*
You'll have the chance to meet him at the Berlin Hack-a-thon, or at Wikimania this summer. *A little bit of background on Stephen: he studied English and Latin at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and
law at
the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. He is
interested
in copyright, privacy, and trademark law. During law school, he worked
on
the Hastings Communication and Entertainment Law Journal.*
Stephen will be helping out with contracts, content/community questions/issues, trademark approvals & licensing, trademark
enforcement,
and other general matters that come up for lawyers. Stephen will
report to
me.
This was an extremely competitive process, and we're very lucky to have him join us.
Kind Regards, Kelly
-- Kelly Kay Deputy General Counsel Wikimedia Foundation
<
http://walk.avonfoundation.org/site/TR?px=6370274&pg=personal&fr_id=...
<
http://walk.avonfoundation.org/site/TR?px=6370274&pg=personal&fr_id=...
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On 15 May 2012, at 21:18, Philippe Beaudette wrote:
Think of LCA as a fork: at the top, the General Counsel. Down one tine of the fork, the Deputy GC, the Legal Counsel, and the Junior Counsel.
Down the other tine of the fork, the Director, Community Advocacy, and the Community Liaison(s)/Advocates. Sort of straddling the middle is Daisy, our paralegal.
Does that help?
Thanks Philippe - that sort of helps, yes. :-) But I'm a bit confused looking at: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Staff#Legal_and_Community_Advocacy
Is there only one Legal Counsel or multiple - does Stephen replace, or work with, Michelle? If the latter, how do the roles relate to each other? Similarly, how does the day-to-day work of the GC and LC relate? Does the GC delegate tasks to the LC, or are there formal lines in the sand between their activities?
Also, who's Daisy? She doesn't appear to be on the staff page on the wiki?
Thanks, Mike P.S. In general, it might be useful if the on-wiki staff list was accompanied by descriptions of the roles that the staff take within the various teams. I'm sure that it's understood within the teams and by those working at the WMF, but it's a bit opaque and confusing from an outside perspective.
On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 1:27 PM, Michael Peel <michael.peel@wikimedia.org.uk
wrote:
Thanks Philippe - that sort of helps, yes. :-) But I'm a bit confused looking at: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Staff#Legal_and_Community_Advocacy
Is there only one Legal Counsel or multiple - does Stephen replace, or work with, Michelle? If the latter, how do the roles relate to each other? Similarly, how does the day-to-day work of the GC and LC relate? Does the GC delegate tasks to the LC, or are there formal lines in the sand between their activities?
There are Multiple people filling the staff attorney/legal counsel role: Michelle and Stephen are both legal counsel (though Stephen's is a more junior role). They each will have a portfolio of tasks that they "own" but in reality they function very independently. The GC can designate any work he wants to anyone he wants, but he tends to prefer to let people own a portfolio that they're the subject matter expert in. As for the day to day work of the GC and LC.... I'll let one of them answer that. I'm not an expert in it.
Also, who's Daisy? She doesn't appear to be on the staff page on the wiki?
She's a temporary paralegal. With us for six months, I believe. :-)
Thanks, Mike P.S. In general, it might be useful if the on-wiki staff list was accompanied by descriptions of the roles that the staff take within the various teams. I'm sure that it's understood within the teams and by those working at the WMF, but it's a bit opaque and confusing from an outside perspective.
I'm speaking out of school here, but I think Gayle is working on something like this?
pb
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On 15 May 2012 21:33, Philippe Beaudette philippe@wikimedia.org wrote:
I'm speaking out of school here, but I think Gayle is working on something like this?
Yes that's correct, I'm speaking from working with Gayle to improve the staff page. Heather Walls (she *is *on the page) is working on improving the staff page overall, with a design that will probably include what you are looking for Mike - a *very *early draft can be see at http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/User:Hwalls/sandbox. Of course if there's anything else you feel the staff page should have, please do convey it to her directly (CCed in) as she is currently looking for ways to enhance it as part of the revamp.
On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 1:33 PM, Philippe Beaudette philippe@wikimedia.orgwrote:
As for the day to day work of the GC and LC.... I'll let one of them answer that. I'm not an expert in it.
Following up on my committment yesterday to find an answer to Mike's questions, Geoff provided the below (which I'm posting, since he's technically on holiday):
From a staffing perspective,
Geoffhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Geoffbrighamserves as the General Counsel with general strategic and oversight responsibilities as well as executive duties. He is responsible for all legal and community advocacy issues for the Wikimedia Foundation. He serves as an advisor to the Board of Trustees and Executive Director. He is in charge of effective management of the LCA team, ensuring a smooth operation that responds to priority projects timely and appropriately. This coming year, he expects to spend about 40% of his time on community advocacy affairs and about 60% on legal matters. Each member of his team is responsible for certain portfolios, and Geoff works closely with his team on high priority, significant projects within those portfolios. Kelly, for example, handles contracts (about 200+ a year), FDC, global outreach, fundraising, non-profit corporate governance, HR, and privacy issues (among other issues) in addition to her duties as Deputy General Counsel. Michelle addresses trademark authorizations (about 200+ a year), copyright, litigation, the legal intern program, hundreds of community inquiries, and content issues (about 100+ takedown demands a year that we challenge successfully 95% of the time). As you know, Philippe and Maggie manage a wide variety of community projects and questions that fall under LCA. Stephen will report to Kelly, who is working on a number of tough, sophisticated goals, and also will help out Michelle and Philippe as needed. We will shortly post a more detailed list of responsibilities for each team member. That said, we are a small team for the fifth largest website in the world, so we are all flexible, supporting each other with their workload, responsibilities, and priorities.
___________________ Philippe Beaudette Director, Community Advocacy Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
415-839-6885, x 6643
philippe@wikimedia.org
On 16 May 2012 15:29, Philippe Beaudette philippe@wikimedia.org wrote:
(about 100+ takedown demands a year that we challenge successfully 95% of the time)
That is a statistic you should boast about more often.
Congratulations Stephen!
Stephen is intelligent and dedicated--he has done great work for Wikimedia during his internship (if you look at the LCA pages and see some of the legislative analysis sections you can see some of it), and I'm delighted to see him join the permanent staff.
-Kat
On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 4:04 PM, Kelly Kay kkay@wikimedia.org wrote:
I am happy to announce that effective today, Stephen LaPorte is joining the Foundation as legal counsel in the Legal and Community Advocacy team! Stephen has been interning with us for a semester, and we're thrilled that he's staying onboard. We went through a very competitive interview process and he was by far the best candidate for the role. One of the criteria for this role was that the candidate be a Wikimedian, and Stephen fits that neatly. *As a volunteer, he enjoys de-orphaning articles and cleaning up dead-end pages on the English Wikipedia. He also proofreads on the English Wikisource. He started contributing to Wikipedia in 2008 after working on [[w:Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve]] for a class project.*
You'll have the chance to meet him at the Berlin Hack-a-thon, or at Wikimania this summer. *A little bit of background on Stephen: he studied English and Latin at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. He is interested in copyright, privacy, and trademark law. During law school, he worked on the Hastings Communication and Entertainment Law Journal.*
Stephen will be helping out with contracts, content/community questions/issues, trademark approvals & licensing, trademark enforcement, and other general matters that come up for lawyers. Stephen will report to me.
This was an extremely competitive process, and we're very lucky to have him join us.
Kind Regards, Kelly
-- Kelly Kay Deputy General Counsel Wikimedia Foundation
http://walk.avonfoundation.org/site/TR?px=6370274&pg=personal&fr_id=2173&s_src=BF_emailbadge http://walk.avonfoundation.org/site/TR?px=6370274&pg=personal&fr_id=2173&s_src=BF_emailbadge _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Great news. It's good to have counsel who writes his own bots*. :-)
Welcome, Stephen! SJ
* http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/User:BenchBot
On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 4:04 PM, Kelly Kay kkay@wikimedia.org wrote:
I am happy to announce that effective today, Stephen LaPorte is joining the Foundation as legal counsel in the Legal and Community Advocacy team! Stephen has been interning with us for a semester, and we're thrilled that he's staying onboard. We went through a very competitive interview process and he was by far the best candidate for the role. One of the criteria for this role was that the candidate be a Wikimedian, and Stephen fits that neatly. *As a volunteer, he enjoys de-orphaning articles and cleaning up dead-end pages on the English Wikipedia. He also proofreads on the English Wikisource. He started contributing to Wikipedia in 2008 after working on [[w:Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve]] for a class project.*
You'll have the chance to meet him at the Berlin Hack-a-thon, or at Wikimania this summer. *A little bit of background on Stephen: he studied English and Latin at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. He is interested in copyright, privacy, and trademark law. During law school, he worked on the Hastings Communication and Entertainment Law Journal.*
Stephen will be helping out with contracts, content/community questions/issues, trademark approvals & licensing, trademark enforcement, and other general matters that come up for lawyers. Stephen will report to me.
This was an extremely competitive process, and we're very lucky to have him join us.
Kind Regards, Kelly
-- Kelly Kay Deputy General Counsel Wikimedia Foundation
http://walk.avonfoundation.org/site/TR?px=6370274&pg=personal&fr_id=2173&s_src=BF_emailbadge http://walk.avonfoundation.org/site/TR?px=6370274&pg=personal&fr_id=2173&s_src=BF_emailbadge _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 8:36 AM, Samuel Klein meta.sj@gmail.com wrote:
Great news. It's good to have counsel who writes his own bots*. :-)
Welcome, Stephen! SJ
Good to see a wikisourcerer in the Legal and Community Advocacy team! Congrats Stephen.
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