Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie has called for closer collaboration with the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) as Ghana prepares to implement far-reaching reforms in legal education.
The Chief Justice, who also serves as Chairperson of the General Legal Council (GLC), said the success of the new reforms will depend on GTEC authorising only properly accredited law faculties to run Bachelor of Laws (LLB) programmes. He made these remarks during a courtesy visit to the Director-General of GTEC, Prof. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai on January 16.
He was accompanied by the Acting Director of the Ghana School of Law, Prof. Raymond Atuguba, and the Judicial Secretary, Abu Musah Ahmed.
Currently before Parliament is the Legal Education Reforms Bill, 2025, which is expected to be passed this year. The proposed reforms seek to end the Ghana School of Law’s long-standing monopoly over professional legal training.
Under the new framework, universities offering LLB programmes will be permitted—subject to accreditation—to provide practical legal training internally. Graduates will then be required to pass a National Bar Examination before being called to the Bar.
The reforms are aimed at addressing long-standing access challenges. At present, only about 28 to 29 percent of LLB graduates gain admission to the Ghana School of Law annually, leaving thousands of qualified candidates frustrated. The new system is intended to broaden access, reduce bottlenecks, and increase the number of practising lawyers in the country.
Explaining the motivation behind the reforms, the Chief Justice noted that access to justice remains limited due to the relatively small number of lawyers.
“When we were called to the Bar in the 1980s, we were about 60. Today, we call 800, sometimes even 1,000 people,” he said. “Yet the total number of practising lawyers is still not more than 5,000. This is far below what the country needs.”
He added that Ghana produces over 4,000 LLB graduates each year, while the Ghana School of Law—despite recent improvements—can admit only about 2,000 to 2,500 students at maximum capacity. “This imbalance is one of the key drivers of the legal education reforms,” he explained.
Providing further details, Director of the Ghana School of Law, Prof. Raymond Atuguba outlined the key pillars of the reform programme. These include the establishment of a new Council for Legal Education and Training, which will assume responsibility for legal education, allowing the General Legal Council to focus solely on regulation of the legal profession.
Other components include joint accreditation and quality assurance by GTEC and the new council, collaborative curriculum development, restructuring of the LLB programme, and the introduction of a Law Practice Training Course. Selected universities will be accredited to run this professional training, after which students will sit a National Bar Examination. Successful candidates will then be called to the Bar by the General Legal Council.
Prof. Atuguba also addressed transitional challenges under the new system, including how to clear the existing backlog of LLB graduates, manage current Ghana School of Law students, and accommodate students from universities that may not immediately qualify to run the law practice programme.
Responding to the delegation, GTEC Director-General Prof. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai assured the Chief Justice of the Commission’s full support. He emphasised that while GTEC would facilitate the operationalization, ownership of the reforms would remain with the General Legal Council.
“We strongly believe that legal education, if properly structured, can become a major source of national value and even revenue,” Prof. Abdulai said. “Ghanaians are travelling to other countries for legal education. Ghana has the potential to become a hub for legal training in West Africa.”
He concluded by urging the reform leaders to provide clear timelines to ensure a smooth and effective transition to the new legal education regime.
