Changes At Top Of The UN; Recruitment Ongoing

This year will be the last in office for United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. A number of Eastern European candidates are being proposed by their governments to be the next secretary general. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as the UN Environment Programme are expected to have a new head by summer. Meanwhile, chairs are actively revolving in law offices.

International Organisations

At the World Intellectual Property Organization, the Group of Central European and Baltic States (CEBS) is now represented by Liene Grike, Advisor at the Mission of Latvia. Latvia takes over from the Czech Republic.

Ban Ki-moon, former South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade and eighth Secretary-General of the UN, took office on 1 January 2007 and was re-elected on 21 June 2011. He is expected to step down at the end of the year. His successor will take office in January 2017. Member states are invited to present candidates. Current candidates are: Srgjan Kerim of Macedonia, Prof. Vesna Pusić of Croatia, Igor Lukšić of Montenegro, Danilo Türk of Slovenia, Irina Bokova of Bulgaria, Natalia Gherman of Moldova, and António Guterres of Portugal.

Separately, the presidency of the Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) changed hands in February, as Laurent Fabius, who started the presidency, and was previously French Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, was appointed President of the French Constitutional Court. He is replaced by Ségolène Royal, current French Minister of Environment, Energy and the Sea.

Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC and a Costa Rican diplomat, announced in February that she would not accept an extension of her appointment, ending on 6 July 2016. She had been in office since 2010, and was reappointed for a second three-year term in July 2013. The request [pdf] for candidate nominations has been sent to all member states. The position of Executive Secretary is expected to be elevated to the level of Under Secretary General.

Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme is expected to step down at the end of his current term, on 15 June 2016. Steiner was nominated by UN Secretary General in 2006, and won a re-election in 2010 for a second four-year term. His appointment was then extended for two years following the recommendation of the UN Secretary General. Steiner is a German and Brazilian national. A request for nominations of candidates was launched with a deadline on 11 January.

Julian Fleet is new Permanent Observer representing the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva. Fleet joins IDLO after a career in the international system where he has spent most of his career working at UNAIDS, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Most recently he served as Senior Adviser in the Office of the Secretary General, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) from 2014-2015.

Another top UN post that will change next year is the director general of the World Health Organization, as Margaret Chan will finish her term in mid-2017. The process has begun for nominations, which will be reported in Intellectual Property Watch as they become known.

Meanwhile, at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the California-based nonprofit that oversees technical aspects of the domain name system, CEO Fadi Chehadé ended his term this week, to join the World Economic Forum. The interim CEO is Akram Atallah, and incoming CEO is Göran Marby of Sweden, the first European to lead ICANN (IPW, ITU/ICANN, 9 February 2016).

Governments

President Obama announced his intent to nominate Carla Hayden as the 14^th Librarian of Congress. Hayden would be the first woman and the first African American to hold the position, said Obama in a press release. Hayden is CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland, a position she has held since 1993. The US Copyright Office is housed in the Library of Congress.

Private Sector / NGOs

Andrew McLaughlin has joined Medium, a new online publishing platform to share ideas and stories, where he will be leading Medium’s content organisation. He is also expected to grow new business opportunities and Medium’s presence in New York. He previously worked for Betaworks, which is an investor in Medium. McLaughlin is former Director of Global Public Policy at Google and served in the Obama White House as Deputy Chief Technology Officer.

Aranca, a global research and analytics firm announced that Dylan Gittleman, Vice President of Business Development and Client Relations for Aranca’s Valuation & Advisory Services business unit, was to become an Advisor for ClearAccessIP. ClearAccessIP is a patent technology company.

Mary Moran, Policy Cures’ Executive Director will leave her post at the end of March. Nick Chapman, current Director of Research, will take over the position of Executive Director. Moran is setting up her own organisation: Policy Cures Consulting, which will specialise in global health research & development advocacy.

Law Offices

Proskauer announced that Fangli Chen joined as partner and vice-chair of the Life Sciences Patent practice, and Daniel Klein as senior patent counsel, in its Boston office. Chen and Klein both came from Choate Hall & Steward Boston office.

Cameron Reuber and Joel Felber have been promoted from Associate to Partner, Leason Ellis announced. Before joining the firm, Reuber and Felber were Associates at Ostrolenk Faber LLP. Reuber has been with Leason Ellis since 2010, and Felber joined in 2012.

Reed Smith announced that Lisa Chiarini joined the firm’s Intellectual Property, Information & Innovation Group in New York as a partner. Chiarini previously handled IP disputes at the International Trade Commission, in federal district court, and before the International Chamber of Commerce International Court of Arbitration.

Schiff Hardin LLP announced that Lisa Shebar joined as counsel in the Intellectual Property Group. Shebar was previously affiliated with Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP for over 22 years in varying roles, including associate and partner. Rachael Schwartz joined the firm’s New York office as counsel in the Financial Markets and Products Group. Before that, Schwartz was an investment management associate in the New York office of Paul Hastings LLP. Schiff Hardin LLP also welcomed Christina Brunka as associate in the Construction Law Group. Brunka was previously from the Chicago office of Arnstein & Lehr LLP.

Susan Hollander is now a partner with Venable in the San Francisco’s office. She previously was with K&L Gates. Hollander has significant experience in trademark, copyright, unfair competition, trade dress, and false advertising cases. Along with Hollander, Jocelyn Belloni, counsel, and Sharoni Finkelstein, associate, are also joining Venable, both coming from K&L Gates.

Quarles & Brady’s announced that Shen Wang joined its Intellectual Property Practice Group. Wang focuses on preparing and prosecuting patent applications in the US and abroad. The firm also announced that Hao Tan joined its IP Practice Group. Hao works with clients in Asia and in the US to obtain IP protection.