Like many great ideas, the conceptualisation of Systemic Justice started on the back of a cocktail napkin. It was February 2020, and Jonathan and I had just parted ways for the evening with the participants of the Digital Freedom Fund’s third annual strategy meeting. We went to grab a drink at Victoria Bar on Potsdamer Strasse to plan for the coming days and generally catch up. Soon, we started picking up a conversation we had been having on and off for a while about the difficult, sometimes extractive dynamics we were seeing between litigators and the communities they said to be serving. The “helicopter” approach – swoop in, do a glamorous case, and then sail off again – had been bugging us for a while. What made this conversation different was that we both felt very strongly that it should be possible to do things differently and started articulating what that could look like. A plan was forming.
Like many people enthralled with their great ideas over a drink, we forgot to actually write anything down on the back of the napkin that came with said drink. But the ideas stuck in our minds and once the first, unsettling period of COVID-19 lockdowns was behind us, a Google doc called “Bar Victoria” was set up in December 2020 to further think through what it would mean to do strategic litigation in a different way.
Looking back at that Google doc, it is amazing to see, five years in, how close we’ve managed to stay to our original vision. The wording and framing have of course evolved over time, but the vision of building “non-extractive partnerships, based on mutually informed consent and agreement on strategy” remains our central mission. As is doing so “not [as] a glossy new human rights org that exists for its own sake, but one that supports the long-term battles of others by bringing in the added firepower of strategic litigation.” Jonathan has been central to making this happen, by building Systemic Justice’s methodology and partnerships with humility, care, and an incredible eye for the inevitable power dynamics that show up when developing strategic casework with communities. It is therefore a bittersweet moment to say goodbye to him at the end of this month.
I cannot overstate what an accomplishment it is that Jonathan has built our legal practice as we articulated it in 2020. Building work that is inherently “slow” in the eyes of a capitalist world, where resourcing often is dependent on a funding ecosystem that is increasingly moving to a framework of quick wins rather than deep and systemic change, requires the kind of visionary persistence that few manage to maintain. Especially when those same systems also bear down on your partners, making it difficult at times to hold on to the belief that all this effort is worthwhile. Taking shortcuts would become tempting for most if they had found themselves in Jonathan’s shoes.
Under Jonathan’s leadership, however, the legal team have done the opposite of caving to external pressure. Seeing the increased pressure our community partners are under in the current landscape, Jonathan had the vision to intentionally slow down even further to ensure we are creating the space those doing heavy firefighting need right now. Rather than pushing for quick cases that are not grounded in the principle that those affected by injustice should be in the lead in designing and driving the strategy to create solutions, we have now shifted our focus to “litigation readiness”, knowing that communities will be ready to move into litigation action when the time is right.
When introducing himself at the beginning of workshops, Jonathan would always describe himself as “a reluctant lawyer”. While I initially took this phrase for granted, I have come to see this as central to what has made Jonathan the perfect person to develop Systemic Justice’s methodology and foundational work. As lawyers, we’re taught, and we adopt and copy so many bad practices – it is hard to see this when you are in the middle of it, enjoying what you’re doing. Jonathan’s ambivalence towards the legal system and profession has, I believe, made it possible to ask the necessary critical questions about what is understood as “lawyering”, opening the door to developing well-considered alternatives.
As part of this work, Jonathan has created a wonderful set of resources for communities interested in exploring strategic litigation: our “Community Toolkit for Change”. Based on a dedicated consultation process in 2022, the toolkit was launched in 2023. It comprises the most accessible guide I know on strategic litigation, a reference tool explaining legalese in normal human speak, and a conversation starter for communities interested in finding out if strategic litigation could be a suitable tactic for them. Originally published in English, it is now available in 6 additional languages (French, Spanish, Danish, Arabic, Somali, and Dutch) with more to follow, including an easy read version.
While this would be enough to keep a normal person plenty busy, alongside this, Jonathan has facilitated our community of practice in a similarly thoughtful manner. This space for shared learning and cocreation between litigating organisations in Europe working on racial, social and economic justice has become a wonderfully self-reflective and generative space. We are deeply thankful that Jonathan will host the community’s next in person gathering later this month before he leaves.
Being part of an organisation’s founding team and senior leadership entails more than “just doing the work”. Jonathan has been a pivotal partner in everything we’ve built over the past years, often bringing in that slightly different perspective that made us get exactly where we needed to be. We’ve weathered the necessary number of storms together, but fortunately also had a great deal of fun. As anyone who has been part of a scrappy startup will know, the work is not always big ideas and strategy. Besides having lugged around flipcharts, post-its, blu-tec and markers for community workshop countless of times, Jonathan organised a wonderful team retreat for us in Northern Ireland where he taught us how to make soda bread, and at our most recent retreat co-hosted what will quite possibly go down as The Best Quiz We’ve Ever Done.
While being a reluctant lawyer has made Jonathan the perfect founder of our legal practice and we will sorely miss him, I am glad that he decided to ask himself the question, as he put it, “if he should be a reluctant anything in life” and has acted on the answer that brought him. Jonathan is leaving us at the end of this month to dedicate a year to focus on writing and in particular his passion of playwriting, but he will also be exploring other forms. True to character, he will not leave us without having first carefully planned and initiated the handover to our incoming Head of Legal, who we are very excited to have join the team and will introduce properly later this summer.
Thank you, Jonathan, for everything you have done in building Systemic Justice, and for having been a fabulous partner in crime to me personally for much longer than that! We will sorely miss you, but are also already looking forward to seeing your play – so please save some good seats for your former colleagues when the time comes 🙂