PLP employs specialist lawyers who assist individuals experiencing personal disadvantage, or charities or organisations representing the interests of marginalised or disadvantaged groups. PLP also employs expert academics and researchers.

Historically PLP has undertaken three distinct strands of activity:

  • Research and policy work
  • Providing training and support to lawyers and advisers
  • Legal casework including strategic litigation. Strategic litigation is where a legal case is taken on with the intention of changing the way a system works to help many people.

We undertake these activities in a coordinated way in order to achieve strategic impact. For instance, research undertaken by PLP into how the justice system is working, or not working, will influence what kind of skills we want to build in our casework team and what kind of training we want to provide lawyers and advisers. The diagram below shows how our various activities work together to form a theory of impact.

Our theory of impact: