Our next virtual litigation retreat will be held on 21-24 April and 4 May 2021. If you’re interested, please get in touch before 19 March 2021.

The last twelve months have been an incredibly challenging and busy time for all of us. During this time, it has also been difficult to find a moment to take a step back and strategise, plot and plan the next wave of digital rights cases to be brought before the courts. 

To help facilitate this necessary work, we are delighted to announce that we will be running our fourth litigation retreat, which will be held virtually on 21 to 23 April 2021 and 4 May 2021.

The retreat provides the opportunity to network with other digital rights litigators, and do some concrete and deep work on a specific digital rights case that you are working on or planning.

The first three days of the retreat are made up of a mixture of training and worshopping sessions that look specifically at how to design a litigation strategy, plan for milestones in a case, implement a successful judgment, and build a campaign around the litigation. 

At this upcoming retreat, we will provide participants with a week-long break from sessions to further reflect on and apply some of the learnings from these three days to their own work. On the final day, we will reconvene so participants can share learnings and map out future opportunities and next steps for further collaboration. 

We know that connecting virtually is nothing like seeing each other in person, but during the virtual retreat we try to provide an environment that is truly participatory and collaborative. We also plan to hold some social and informal sessions so participants can get to know each other a bit better. 

…we hope that participants can come away from the retreat with an enhanced litigation strategy and plan for their cases

Through creating this space, and holding focused discussions, we hope that participants can come away from the retreat with an enhanced litigation strategy and plan for their cases. As a participant from a previous retreat said: “it is a unique opportunity to stop and reflect on what can be done better when you’re trying to achieve change using strategic litigation.”

This will be the second time we have held the retreat virtually, having previously held retreats “offline” in Montenegro and Belgrade. Our first virtual litigation retreat was held last November, and nine digital rights litigators from across Europe took part. 

During the November retreat, a variety of cases were workshopped, including litigation challenging unfair algorithmic management and classification of gig workers, internet shutdowns in Belarus, targeted surveillance of lawyers’ digital communications in Ukraine, as well as a case utilising the GDPR to help facilitate access to information for victims of historical abuse. The retreat also included social events, including a live virtual concert with music from Nicha and a cook-along. 

One participant from the virtual retreat described their experience as it having been “useful to think about litigation in the round – how it fits into a broader campaign, preparing for it and post judgment implementation. Hearing experience of others as well as to understand challenges others are facing was very grounding and helpful.”

If you are interested in joining us this spring, please get in touch with us and we will send you a short application form to fill out. The deadline for applications is 19 March 2021.

The main thing we ask for is that all participants come to the retreat with a digital rights case study – whether existing or hypothetical

The main thing we ask for is that all participants come to the retreat with a digital rights case study – whether existing or hypothetical – that they would be interested in litigating and open to workshopping with other participants. Ideally, the case study would fall within DFF’s thematic focus areas, which you can read more about here, but we are open to other strategic case ideas as well. 

We hope you will be able to join us!