This update just arrived from Almut Gadow's fundraiser:
Re: 4-week hearing in February/March 2025 and other updates
It’s about time I posted an update on my case to all those who are generously backing it.
Some observant readers of my CrowdJustice page have already noticed that the lawyers listed on it changed a few days ago. So let me start by explaining this change. It reflects the fact that my solicitor has moved to what someone once described to me as the TERFs’ law firm of choice.
From the outset, I have said that I am hoping my case will clarify and develop UK law on academic free expression. So, when I commenced legal action against the Open University, I instructed James Murray, a solicitor with an unequalled publication record on this specific niche of law.
Last month, James Murray then moved to Doyle Clayton – a firm which has become something of a household name in the gender critical world. Past clients of Doyle Clayton’s include Maya Forstater in her claim against CGD Europe, Raquel Rosario Sánchez in her case against the University of Bristol, the LGB Alliance when Mermaids challenged its charity status, and Sibyl Ruth in her action against Cornerstones. The firm also continues to represent James Esses in his case against his former course provider, and Pilgrim Tucker in her case against the Open University.
From my perspective it was just rather fortuitous that the solicitor with the exact expertise my case requires has now found his way to a firm with a strong track record in cases of this nature. My counsel at the tribunal will still be Akua Reindorf KC. The Free Speech Union continues to support my case but all funds will now be transferred directly to Doyle Clayton.
In short, you simply could not put together a better legal team for this case than I now have.
We remain confident that my claim, and the legal points I raise in it, will ultimately succeed. But getting there will be a long slog. I fear that the Open University’s strategy will rely heavily on having deeper pockets, and trying to make legal action against them prohibitively expensive. CrowdJustice alone hosts the funding appeal of a gender critical professor whose tribunal hearing took three weeks as the Open University wished to call 18 (!) witnesses, as well as the appeal of a gender critical PhD student against whom the Open University has initiated disciplinary proceedings over her crowdfunding appeal twice.
In my case, because the Open University have said they will call around 15 and potentially up to 20 witnesses, there will be a four-week (!) hearing. I will leave each reader to reach his or her own conclusions why the Open University feels its defence case needs this. In time, and as we get closer to the hearing, this may mean that we will have to revise up the cost estimate, because we were, of course, not expecting to spend a month in court. At the current stage in the process, the amount of legal work that goes into my case, and with it the costs compared to our original estimate, are not significantly affected by the Open University’s high-resource approach. So we have not changed the estimate for now.
My case had been listed for a full-day preliminary hearing on 31 October, for the Employment Tribunal to consider striking out part of my claim against the Open University. Eventually, the Open University accepted facts it could have accepted five months earlier, and asked the tribunal not to consider striking out any part of my claim after all. It did so only after much work and expense had already gone into preparing for the hearing.
The final hearing has now been listed for 24 February to 21 March 2025. We have requested video access to the hearing to be made available, for live tweeters and members of the public who wish to follow the proceedings. While this has not yet been formally confirmed, neither the judge nor the Open University opposed the request in principle, so I hope this will be available.
And that pretty much brings me up to date. Ahead lie many months (fifteen months, to be precise) of working with my legal team to prepare the case for the 2025 hearing – to collate and exchange documentary evidence, to prepare a bundle of documents for the trial, to prepare witness statements and generally get trial ready. For now, there is still money in the pot to pay for the ongoing work. In the new year, I expect a point will come where we have to open another round of fundraising.
While there may not be much to update you on before the new year, it is definitely too early for season’s greetings. So I will instead close by thanking you again for your ongoing support.
Almut