About us
Law for Life: the Foundation for Public Legal Education is an independent charity set up in 2011 to ensure that ordinary people have the knowledge, confidence and practical skills needed to deal with the law-related issues they are likely to encounter in the course of their lives.
What does Law for Life do?
Law for Life provides education and training in the field of public legal education; we support practitioners and develop research so that we can share knowledge about how and why legal education for a wider public is an important part of access to justice.
We have developed community based education around social welfare issues such as housing, welfare benefits, consumer and employment issues with a strong emphasis on empowerment skills. We evaluate the impact of the learning to ensure that people are better able to cope with legal issues when they do arise.
We can provide:
- off-the-shelf community education sessions on a range of legal issues.
- bespoke courses and sessions tailored to particular community needs.
- in-house training to support organisations to improve their legal capability.
- public legal education train-the-trainer courses for staff and volunteers.
Research
Law for Life commissions research and supports the development of pilot projects to meet identified needs. Evaluation of these projects provides the means to develop the theory and practice of effective PLE.
Publications:
- Public legal education evaluation framework
- PLE Principles and guidance
- Measuring young people’s legal capability
Trustees and Patrons
Our Trustees come from a broad range of backgrounds: from government, law and education. We are delighted to have Michael Smyth CBE as our chairman.
Our three distinguished patrons are: The Rt Hon. Sir Henry Brooke, Professor Dame Hazel Genn DBE QC and The Rt Hon. Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury
List of Law for Life's Patrons and Trustees
Background
Law for Life builds on the work of Plenet, the Public Legal Education Network, which ran from 2008 to 2011 hosted by Advice Services Alliance and on the report of the Public Legal Education and Support Task Force.
Join the network
Join our network to get a regular newsletter and priority booking for events and conferences.
Updated January 2013
Law for Life: the Foundation for Public Legal Education is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England & Wales no. 07695486. Charity no. 1143589. Registered office: 33 Corsham Street London N1 6DR.
