The President, Nana Akufo-Addo appears to be softening his stance on legal education in Ghana to allow more and more people interested in the legal profession to access it. He, however, insisted on the General Legal Council having the final say on the issue.
To this end, he has “asked the Attorney-General to fast-track the balance of consultations on the Legal Profession Bill, and lay it before Cabinet and, ultimately, Parliament as soon as possible for enactment”.
Attorney-General Godfred Yeboah Dame, has been under pressure for describing admission to the law school, the call to the bar and the practice of law in Ghana as a privilege.
The immediate past Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, had also resisted opening up the law school to allow more people to access legal education and become lawyers.
According to him “it must dispel the notion that the legal profession is a guild, a small club of mostly men, which is difficult to penetrate”.
The President said this today Monday, 29th November, when he delivered the keynote address at the International Conference on the Future of Legal Education in Ghana/Africa”, held at the Auditorium of the University Of Ghana School Of Law, Legon.
“We have a legal education system here in Ghana that has served us well. Lawyers have played significant and critical roles in our society. However, a reform of the system, under which legal education currently operates, is necessary to accommodate our current realities”, the President said.
He hopes that “this Bill aims to comprehensively address the issues of legal education in Ghana today”.
It was his expectation that the bill will “…..also streamline the regulatory dualism between the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission and the General Legal Council when it comes to legal education”. I have to restate my conviction that the General Legal Council must have the final say”.
While in office, Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo had taken a strong stand saying, the existing systems and structures for the training of lawyers in the country will not be changed.
She argues that it is better to have few qualified lawyers than many with compromised quality.
“Those of you lawyers and those of your lecturers who are busy advocating free scale, mass admissions into the professional law course, and mass production of lawyers, to be careful what you wish for. So long as I have anything to do with it, it won’t happen. Just like you can’t mass produce doctors and surgeons, Ghanaians must not have mass-produced lawyers imposed on them,” she said at a public event.
Madam Akuffo while reiterating her point at a ceremony to enrol newly qualified lawyers into the Bar, said although plans are far advanced for the commencement of the construction of a larger campus for the Ghana School of Law, it will not translate into mass admissions.
“Plans have been made for the creation of new and other campuses away from the hustle and bustle of central Accra for which land was acquired some years ago. The plan for the execution of this project is expected to be captured in the 2020 budget which is being prepared now.
“But, however much available space is increased, the GLC [General Legal Council] will never relent on its commitment to assure us of the production of quality lawyers through the observation of highest standards,” she told the gathering.
Recently, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, literally received slaps, following his attempt to introduce a Legal Profession Bill to consolidate and amend the existing legislation regulating the profession; a move described as something which rather “intensifies” an existing problem.
A former Director of the Ghana School of Law, Kwaku Ansa-Asare, has since advised Godfred Yeboah Dame, to stop rushing and immediately withdraw the Legal Profession Bill, because some clauses are laughable.
Additionally, the National Law Students Association of Ghana, has also rubbished the draft bill proposing an amendment to the Legal Professions Act.
Many have said that Mr. Yeboah Dame’s document was a knee jerk reaction to the private members’ bill being sponsored by Members of Parliament for Bolgatanga East; Dr. Dominic Ayine, Okaikoi Central; Patrick Yaw Boamah and Asawase; Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka.
A memo from the three MPs, said the bill is expected to bridge gaps in the current legal and regulatory framework by providing for aspects of legal education that remain either partially regulated or wholly regulated.”
According to Mr Ansa-Asare, who is 41 years at the Bar, counseled the Attorney-General to do further consultation with relevant stakeholders before such a bill is laid before the House.
“I will say that the entire bill at this stage must be withdrawn. First, because there have not been sufficient stakeholder consultations. What the Attorney General seems to be doing is rushing a bill that has not been considered by stakeholders. Secondly, there seems to be a lot of politicking going on with legal education,” Mr Ansa-Asare told Joy News.
“What the nation needs at this stage is to widen access to legal education in order to be able to confront and combat the numerous human rights issues confronting the country,” the owner of the Mountcrest University College is a private co-ed tertiary institution in Ghana which trains LLB students, added.
Godfred Dame’s bill is yet to be laid before parliament and has been criticized by law students and other stakeholders since its content became public.
The bill, which will be seeking to consolidate and amend the existing legislation regulating the profession, empowers the General Legal Council to allocate quotas to universities that the Council has approved to run the Bachelor of Laws program.
This is seen as the very elitist approach to the training and practice of law, which the Attorney-General Dame, has been espousing in recent times.
The clause has been criticized as further shutting the door to legal education in the country. The already discarded interview process as part of the admission into the Ghana Law School will be reintroduced in this bill.
Under the new bill, the Independent Exams Committee will now become a creation of Law and to appeal decisions of the General Legal Council’s Disciplinary Committee, affected persons can no longer go to the High Court but the Supreme Court.
In a reaction, Mr Ansa-Asare who was with the Ghana School of Law from 1987 to 2013 when he retired, said, “on the issue of licensing and recognition, I think these are panicky measures that the Attorney General is seeking to introduce.
Hassan Asare of National Law Students Association of Ghana said the bill should be thrown out and insisted that concerns with access and transparency have not been addressed in the proposals.
“It is not provided anywhere in this Bill. It is just trying to make things worse by limiting how many people become lawyers in this country.”
Mr. Asare instead said energy should be channeled towards the private member’s bill seeking to address challenges associated with legal education in Ghana.
“Let’s look at the Private Member’s Bill and pass it because I think that it is more progressive than this retrogressive Bill that seeks to do nothing than to worsen the situation.”
The Attorney General’s proposals included the licensing of Universities offering LLB programmes and the use of entrance examinations as well as interview sessions as requirements for enrollment into the Ghana School of Law.
Meanwhile, one of the foremost advocates of the reformation of legal education in Ghana, Prof. Kwaku Asare says the proposed amendment from the Attorney General is a reflection of the inability of Ghanaian leaders to tolerate other people’s views.
In a post on Facebook, the law lecturer indicated that the draft bill erases all efforts of advocates of legal education in Ghana.
“The same people, groups, associations, and mindsets that created the problem have teamed up to offer us a bill that only intensifies the problems,” he said.
Dr. Dominic Ayine, disclosed that the Minority MPs will oppose the Attorney General’s new Legal Profession Bill, 2021 which is yet to be laid before the House.
According to him, the proposals contained in the Attorney General’s bill are not something they can support.
Dr. Dominic Ayine, who himself, with two other MPs have tabled a private members bill on the legal education reforms argued on Joy News that: “The bifurcated approach that is being adopted by the Attorney General’s bill is not something we want to support and we will be galvanizing support in parliament to go against that.
“I don’t think we should combine the regulation of professional legal education with the legal profession as a whole. In England, they have done the separation. And because of the growing demand for Legal Education, I think we need a special body.”
The MPs in their bill are recommending the decoupling of the administration and regulation of legal education from that of the legal profession.
They are calling for the establishment of a Council for Legal Education and Training, which shall be in charge of legal education in the Republic.
Dr. Ayine, who used to lecture at the Ghana School of Law, says he had been working on this since 2015. Interestingly, the bill is dated 24th August 2021 but yet to be put before Parliament. The date was also handwritten suggesting someone was out pretending to be working on a bill to renew legal education in Ghana.
However, a memo dated 9th November 2021, from the three MPs said the bill is expected to bridge gaps in the “current legal and regulatory framework by providing for critical aspects of legal education that remain either partially regulated or wholly regulated.”
The MPs in their bill are recommending the decoupling of the administration and regulation of legal education from that of the legal profession.
“The Council shall be a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal and shall, in its corporate name, be capable of suing and be sued, acquiring and disposing of property and performing any other acts that a body corporate can perform under the Companies Act, 2019 (Act 992) in furtherance of its purpose,” a portion of the proposed bill said.
The Attorney General is seeking to introduce a Legal Profession Bill to consolidate and amend the existing legislation regulating the profession.
Clause 30(2) of the bill indicates that the General Legal Council may allocate quotas to universities that the Council has approved to run the Bachelor of Laws program. This has been criticized as further closing the door to legal education in the country. The already discarded interview process as part of the admission into the Ghana Law School will be reintroduced in this bill. Under the new bill, the Independent Exams Committee will now become a creation of Law and to appeal decisions of the General Legal Council’s Disciplinary Committee, affected persons can no longer go to the High Court but the Supreme Court.
The Attorney General was particularly criticized by many for suggesting that law practice is a privilege and not a right.
