The legal education charity established with a £200m endowment following last year’s sale of the College of Law to private equity firm Montagu has awarded its first six grants, amounting to around £550,000.

The grants were announced at the launch of the Legal Education Foundation (LEF). Guy Beringer, former managing partner of magic circle firm Allen & Overy, chairs the charity’s eight-strong board of governors, which includes former Law Society president Ed Nally.

The recipients of the grants are the Law Centres Network; LawWorks, which supports pro bono work; Pathways, which encourages young people from less socially privileged backgrounds to enter the law; the Advocacy Training Council; Galleries of Justice, which uses historical legal buildings to teach children about law; and the British and Irish Legal Information Institute, which provides free access to law reports.

Beringer said: ‘The LEF will seek to support a wide variety of organisations and will cast its net widely to cover all forms of legal education in many different social, professional and academic settings. Our next application deadline is October. We face our own challenge of raising awareness of the LEF and the breadth of its remit. I hope this launch will help get the message out to get in touch.’

Julie Bishop, director of the Law Centres Network, said: ‘The grant has come at exactly the right time as the Ministry of Justice has cut funding for training. It is needed all the more now, with major changes to legal aid being implemented and charitable funding becoming tighter.’