CoL education sold to private equity firm; charitable arm split off

Following months of speculation, The College of Law has announced that it is to separate its legal education and training business from its charitable activities, and sell the education business to European private equity firm Montagu. The course provider will continue to be known as 'The College of Law', and all existing contractual commitments with law firms, accreditations and branding will also be acquired by Montagu.

The charity will be renamed The Legal Education Foundation, and will receive in excess of £200 million from the sale. The foundation will "promote the advancement of legal education and the study of law for future generations of students through bursaries, scholarships and grants". Montagu has also committed to establishing a £2 million scholarship fund for CoL students.

Nigel Savage, CoL's CEO, said: "Today is the beginning of an exciting new era in the history of the College for all concerned: our people, students, law firms and all other stakeholders. The market for legal services is embracing new business models and a change in our ownership structure will enable us to access investment and expertise to take full advantage of the huge opportunities in the domestic and global legal education market." CoL has recently announced that it plans to launch in Singapore.

Law Society Chief Executive Desmond Hudson said: "The College of Law plays a significant role in producing excellent lawyers that the profession can be proud of. […]Investment from private equity into the way solicitors and barristers are educated has the potential to raise that bar higher and improve value for money for our members if training new lawyers remains the focus of the College under its new ownership and that focus is not diluted into other ventures."

For more detail about the change of ownership from the CoL itself, click here.