Legal Education Foundation

Last updated
Legal Education Foundation
Formation1962;62 years ago (1962)
Founded at Guildford, UK
Registration no. 271297
Legal status Registered charity
PurposeAdvancement of legal education and the sound development and administration of law
Headquarters15 Alfred Place, London, WC1E 7EB
Region
UK
Chief Executive
Matthew Smerdon
Chair of Governors
Paddy Sloan
Website thelegaleducationfoundation.org
Formerly called
The College of Law

The Legal Education Foundation an independent grant-making foundation operating across the UK to build a society that fosters the principles of justice and fairness, where people understand and use law to bring about positive change and to prevent harm, and where public systems and structures uphold the rule of law. [1] It was founded in 1962 as The College of Law and constituted in its present form in 2012.

Contents

History

The charity began in 1962 when the Law Society's own law college (founded in 1903) merged with the tutorial firm Gibson and Weldon (founded in 1876) to form the College of Law with branches in London and Guildford. [2] The College of Law was a private teaching institution which operated as a charity. It was incorporated by royal charter in 1975 and officially registered as a charity in 1976 "to promote the advancement of legal education and the study of law in all its branches". [3] It never received Higher Education Funding Council funds and was dependent solely on its own resources to operate the college and finance its growth. In 2006, the college was granted degree-awarding powers and began a collaboration with the Sutton Trust to fund the trust's Pathways to Law program which encourages and supports disadvantaged secondary school students who wish to study law. [4] Until 2012, the College of Law was in the top 100 of UK charities ranked by expenditure. [5]

In 2012, the College Of Law underwent a major restructuring which split off the educational institution from its parent charity. College of Law Ltd. was created as a limited company to take on its educational and training business on a for-profit basis. The parent charity changed its name to the Legal Education Foundation and remained under the royal charter. In November of that year the college was granted university status. Shortly thereafter it was sold to Montagu Private Equity for £200 million. The proceeds of the sale went to the Legal Education Foundation, while the £177 million debt incurred by Montagu for the purchase was transferred to the college itself. The college subsequently changed its name to the University of Law. [6] [7]

Activities

The newly constituted Legal Education Foundation officially launched on 10 July 2013 with the announcement of its first six grants and the appointment of Matthew Smerdon as its first CEO. Smerdon was recruited from the Baring Foundation, where he specialised in funding the legal advice sector. [8] The charity had begun investing its £200 million endowment in April 2013 with its investment managers instructed to preserve the value of the fund in real terms and produce an annual income of 3.5%. By the beginning of 2015, it had distributed approximately £5m in grants to nearly 70 projects which were designed to increase accessibility to legal services or to increase public understanding of the law. The foundation also initiated and runs the Justice First fellowship program which funds trainee solicitors who wish to work in the social welfare sector. In 2014 , it awarded Justice First fellowships to eight law graduates recruited from a field of 161 applicants. In 2016, the program was expanded to include two further fellowships for trainee barristers. [9] [10] The charity has continued and expanded its collaboration with the Sutton Trust in the Pathways to Law program and also collaborates with the Baring Foundation in widening public access to legal advice. [11] [12] In addition to the income from its own endowment, the Legal Education Foundation also receives grants for its projects from general funding organizations such as Comic Relief and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. [9]

Related Research Articles

The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death of the two founders, the foundation owned 90% of the non-voting shares of the Ford Motor Company. Between 1955 and 1974, the foundation sold its Ford Motor Company holdings and now plays no role in the automobile company.

In the United States, federal grants are economic aid issued by the United States government out of the general federal revenue. A federal grant is an award of financial assistance from a federal agency to a recipient to carry out a public purpose of support or stimulation authorized by a law of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charitable organization</span> Nonprofit organization with charitable purpose

A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Financial endowment</span> Legal structure for managing investments

A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are often structured so that the inflation-adjusted principal or "corpus" value is kept intact, while a portion of the fund can be spent each year, utilizing a prudent spending policy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carnegie Corporation of New York</span> American philanthropic fund

The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grant (money)</span> Non-repayable funds disbursed by one party to a recipient

A grant is a financial award given by a government entity, foundation, corporation, or other organization to an individual or organization for a specific purpose. Unlike loans, grants do not need to be repaid, making them an attractive source of funding for various activities, such as research, education, public service projects, and business ventures. Examples include student grants, research grants, the Sovereign Grant paid by the UK Treasury to the monarch, and some European Regional Development Fund payments in the European Union.

Lilly Endowment Inc., headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, is one of the world's largest private philanthropic foundations and among the largest endowments in the United States. It was founded in 1937 by Josiah K. Lilly Sr. and his sons, Eli Jr. and Josiah Jr. (Joe), with an initial gift of Eli Lilly and Company stock valued at $280,000 USD. As of 2020, its total assets were worth $21 billion.

TheUniversity of Law is a private for-profit university in the United Kingdom, providing undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in law, business, psychology, criminology, policing and computer science. It also provides postgraduate courses in education, and specialist legal training and continuing professional development courses for British barristers, solicitors and trainees; it is the United Kingdom's largest law school. It traces its origins to 1876.

The American Bar Foundation (ABF) is an independent, nonprofit national research institute established in 1952 and located in Chicago, United States. Its mission is to expand knowledge and advance justice by supporting innovative, interdisciplinary and rigorous empirical research on law, legal processes and legal institutions. This program of sociolegal research is conducted by an interdisciplinary staff of Research Faculty trained in such diverse fields as law, sociology, psychology, political science, philosophy, economics, history, and anthropology.

The Charles H. Revson Foundation was founded in 1956 by Charles H. Revson, the founding President of Revlon Cosmetics as a vehicle for his charitable giving. He willed half of his estate to the Foundation upon his death. Julie Sandorf has been the President of the Foundation since January 2008.

In the United States, a donor-advised fund is a charitable giving vehicle administered by a public charity created to manage charitable donations on behalf of organizations, families, or individuals. To participate in a donor-advised fund, a donating individual or organization opens an account in the fund and deposits cash, securities, or other financial instruments. They surrender ownership of anything they put in the fund but retain advisory privileges over how their account is invested, and how it distributes money to charities.

The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation is a registered charity founded in England in 1961. It is one of the larger independent grant-making foundations based in the UK, funding organisations which aim to improve the quality of life for people and communities in that country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sutton Trust</span> Educational charity in the UK

The Sutton Trust is an educational charity in the United Kingdom which aims to improve social mobility and address educational disadvantage. The charity was set up by educational philanthropist, Sir Peter Lampl in 1997.

Until 1969, the term private foundation was not defined in the United States Internal Revenue Code. Since then, every U.S. charity that qualifies under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service Code as tax-exempt is a "private foundation" unless it demonstrates to the IRS that it falls into another category such as public charity. Unlike nonprofit corporations classified as a public charity, private foundations in the United States are subject to a 1.39% excise tax or endowment tax on any net investment income.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Lampl</span> British philanthropist

Peter Lampl,, is a British philanthropist. He was the founder and chairman of the Sutton Trust and the Education Endowment Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York Foundation</span> 1909 charitable foundation, NY, NY, US

The New York Foundation is a charitable foundation which gives grants to non-profit organizations supporting community organizing and advocacy in New York City.

Jon Lloyd Stryker is an American architect, philanthropist, and billionaire heir to the Stryker Corporation medical technology company fortune.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Education Endowment Foundation</span> British charitable organization

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) is a charity established in 2011 to improve the educational attainment of the poorest pupils in English schools. It aims to support teachers and senior leaders by providing evidence-based resources designed to improve practice and boost learning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Bohnett Foundation</span>

The David Bohnett Foundation is a private foundation that gives grants to organizations that focus on its core giving areas – primarily Los Angeles area programs and LGBT rights in the United States, as well as leadership initiatives and voter education, gun violence prevention, and animal language research. It was founded by David Bohnett in 1999. As of 2022, the foundation has donated $125 million to nonprofit organizations and initiatives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chan Zuckerberg Initiative</span> American Philanthropic organization

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) is an organization established and owned by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan with an investment of 99 percent of the couple's wealth from their Facebook shares over their lifetime. The CZI is legally set up as a limited liability company (LLC) that can be seen as a for-profit charity and is an example of philanthrocapitalism. CZI has been deemed likely to be "one of the most well-funded Philanthropies in human history". Chan and Zuckerberg announced its creation on 1 December 2015, to coincide with the birth of their first child. Priscilla Chan has said that her background as a child of immigrant refugees and experience as a teacher and pediatrician for vulnerable children influences how she approaches the philanthropy's work in science, education, immigration reform, housing, criminal justice, and other local issues.

References

  1. ↑ "The Legal Education Foundation". Crown Copyright. Retrieved 25 November 2023.
  2. ↑ Abel, (1998). The Making of the English Legal Profession 1800–1988, pp. 145–146. Beard Books (reprint of the 1988 edition). ISBN   1587982501
  3. ↑ Charity Commission for England and Wales. Legal Education Foundation, Charity No. 271297. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  4. ↑ Partington, Martin (2016). Introduction to the English Legal System 2016-17. p. 269. Oxford University Press. ISBN   0198758804
  5. ↑ "The Top 500 Charities". Charities Direct. Archived from the original on 19 November 2010. Retrieved 2 June 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  6. ↑ Wright, S. (2015). "The Imaginators of English University Reform", p. 142 in Sheila Slaughter and Barrett Jay Taylor (eds.) Higher Education, Stratification, and Workforce Development. Springer. ISBN   3319215124
  7. ↑ Rogerson, Paul (2 June 2015). "Going Dutch". Law Society Gazette
  8. ↑ Holt, Andrew (25 July 2013). "New Legal Education Foundation appoints CEO". Charity Times. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  9. 1 2 Rozenberg, Joshua (16 February 2015). "Access to learning fund". Law Society Gazette . Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  10. ↑ Legal Education Foundation (19 April 2016). Fellowship scheme extended to the Bar. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  11. ↑ Henshaw, Pete (18 May 2016). "Law education scheme targets 1,800 disadvantaged students". SecEd. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  12. ↑ Baksi, Catherine (1 September 2014). "Law centres: Picking up the pieces". Law Society Gazette . Retrieved 16 June 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.