Nominet head of legal resigns

Nominet runs the .uk domain

In an abrupt move, Emily Taylor has resigned from her position as director of legal and policy at .uk registry Nominet.

When contacted, the not-for-profit had no news about her potential successor or the reason for the sudden move.

“We can confirm that Emily Taylor has resigned from Nominet,” read the simple statement.

“We'd like to thank her for her good work on behalf of the company and the ccNSO and wish her all the best for the future.”

Taylor has been an influential figure for the organisation since she joined in 2000 as its first in-house lawyer, representing the UK at numerous United Nations Internet Governance Forum events.

She was also company secretary and was instrumental in the setting up of the organisation’s dispute resolution service – something which has been called upon regularly in recent times as the value of web domain names and incidents of cybersquatting increase.

In 2005 she was elected as a non-executive director of CENTR, the Council for European National Top Level Domain Registries, and was also responsible for Nominet’s Policy Advisory Body - an organisation which acts as a bridge between Nominet stakeholders and the Board.

Taylor’s resignation will be a blow to the registry, which could even find its position at the heart of the UK domain name industry marginalised under new proposals outlined in the Digital Economy Bill.

Special reserve powers Secretary of State Peter Mandelson wants to bring in would give future secretaries of state the power to take control of all matters .uk if they believed Nominet was not acting in the interests of UK web users.