Law grants awarded

Law Centres and an organisation that trains advocates to deal with vulnerable witnesses are among the recipients of the first six grants by the Legal Education Foundation (LEF).

The LEF was created last year with the proceeds of the sale of the College of Law’s education and training business.

The Advocacy Training Council—a council of barristers, judges and others established by the Inns of Court—will use its grant to develop toolkits for the Advocate’s Gateway, its project to ensure all advocates are equipped to handle vulnerable people in court.

Pathways Phase 3, a charity that supports young people from less socially advantaged backgrounds to enter the legal profession, will extend its legal access programme to 12 universities with its grant. Oxford University, Essex University, Exeter University, and the University of Nottingham in partnership with Nottingham Law School will join the existing universities to provide 1,200 places over the next four years.

Sir Peter Lampl, chair of the Sutton Trust, which runs the programme, says it has built up a “great reputation” and was “a great way for the profession to nurture and support talent it would not otherwise reach”.

The Law Centres Network, pro bono group LawWorks, and the National Centre for Citizenship and the Law, which runs mock trials and courtroom workshops for schoolchildren, and free online law reports site the British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII), also received grants. 

The next LEF application deadline is 15 October.