Our history

In 2004 Advicenow, a project of the Advice Services Alliance (ASA) began campaigning with Legal Action Group and Citizenship Foundation for public legal education to be recognised as an important element of legal services. As a result, the Ministry of Justice supported the independent PLEAS Task Force which recommended the establishment of a ‘PLE Centre’ to take forward the work of developing public legal education.

The Ministry of justice funded the Public Legal Education Network in 2008. It brought together people working in the field of public legal education in the UK and internationally and built a membership of 500 organisations and individuals from statutory bodies, not-for-profit organisations, legal professionals, researchers, educators and campaigners in the UK and abroad.

After 3 years development as a network, Law for Life was formally constituted as a company limited by guarantee and registered as a charity. In 2013 Advicenow was formally merged with Law for Life.