Everything we do is grounded in the realities of the sector:

• Designed and delivered by sector experts with real experience of managing specialist advice organisations.

• We speak your language — no corporate jargon, no management clichés.

• We focus on practical tools and reflective learning that can be applied immediately.

• We build confidence and capability, not just competence.

• And we create spaces for connection and support, because no manager should have to do it alone.

Our vision is a fair, more equal and thriving society where everyone has the opportunity to flourish.

Our theory of change is simple: strong management and leadership underpins strong advice organisations. Strong organisations expand access to justice. Access to justice is the cornerstone of a fair, more equal and thriving society where everyone has the opportunity to flourish.

We invest in the building the skills, confidence, and connections of managers and leaders, helping them build resilient, adaptable organisations capable of delivering high-quality advice that reflects the needs of their diverse communities.

By supporting collaboration across the sector, we help create an environment where people and communities can better understand, use, and shape the law.

We work with:

• Law Centres, Citizens Advice offices, advice charities, and other community-based organisations

• Specialist NGOs, funders, and infrastructure bodies

• Leadership teams and trustees seeking to strengthen organisational culture and resilience

The Management & Leadership Hub is a of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group (a non-profit company limited by guarantee).   LAPG and the Hub are run by LAPG’s CEO, Chris Minnoch.  The Hub has two dedicated part time staff, Tina Puryear (Organisational Training & Development Consultant) and Andrea Shumaker (Head of Learning & Development) however day-to-day strategic and operational management is provided, on a consultancy basis, by Matt Howgate, a respected sector consultant and expert.

The Hub’s training, consultancy and resources are then provided by freelance consultants, including Matt, Jayne Butler, Vicky Ling, Phanuel Mutumburi, Jo Hickman, Fiona Bawden etc.

This model allows the Hub to remain agile and adaptive, benefiting from the expertise of sector experts whilst being firmly rooted within LAPG’s management and governance structures.

The Management & Leadership Hub is a special hosted project of the Legal Aid Practitioner’s Group (LAPG). LAPG is a non-profit company limited by guarantee, allowing it to campaign on access to justice and legal aid issues. LAPG also supports and provides the secretariat for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Access to Justice.

The Hub was established in consultation with the Law Centres Network, Advice UK and Citizens Advice and each year our training programmes are well attended by members of each.

The Hub was created with funding and support from the Community Justice Fund, LEF (formerly the Legal Education Foundation) and the AB Charitable Trust.

The Hub is currently funded by the Access to Justice Foundation (ATJF), the National Lottery Community Fund and the AB Charitable Trust. It also received ad hoc participant funding from the London Legal Support Trust.

In around 2014, noted sector consultant and legal aid guru, Vicky Ling, spotted a funding opportunity aimed at the development of management training in sectors where it didn’t really exist.  Vicky, Matt Howgate and Carol Storer, pulled together an application which eventually led LAPG to be funded, by the UK Commission for Education & Skills, to develop a Certificate in Practice Management course for the private and non-profit legal aid sector.

Initially run as a 4-day residential, that course morphed into a series of one-day training sessions and then into online training modules.

When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, a number of sector funders (including the Legal Education Foundation, Therium Access, the Indigo Trust, the AB Charitable Trust, the National Lottery and the Access to Justice Foundation) came together to establish the Community Justice Fund – a fund aimed at sustaining the specialist advice sector through lockdowns and the crisis.  The Fund’s Board quickly identified that money wasn’t going to be enough to get the sector through the crisis.  In addition, they needed to strengthen management and to offer consultancy support.

The Fund’s Board asked Matt Howgate, who was working with them as a special adviser, if the LAPG Certificate in Practice Management could be adapted to specifically support non-profit specialist advice agencies through the Covid crisis, and whether it could be delivered online and remotely.  They also asked if LAPG could pull together a number of consultants to support the sector.

We created an entirely new programme in just a few weeks and rolled out management training to over 90 agencies.  We also provided well over 100 days of urgently needed consultancy assistance through 6 freelance expert consultants.  This became the core of the Management & Leadership Hub.

When the Community Justice Fund closed, the Hub’s funding was taken over by LEF and the AB Charitable Trust and its work continued and expanded.  In 2024 their funding ended, and the Hub was instead funded to provide the grantee support programme (funder plus) for the Access to Justice Foundation’s National Lottery backed ILTA grantees.  In 2025, the AB Charitable Trust kindly re-funded the Hub, allowing us to make out training more widely available and accessible.

Had it not been for the original work of Vicky, Matt and Carol and the subsequent support of the Community Justice Fund ,followed by LEF, AB and other funders, the Hub would not exist.