President John Dramani Mahama has signed the Legal Education Reform Bill, 2025 into law.
This is expected to expand access to the professional legal education system, marking a historic turning point to bring an end to the Ghana School of Law’s 66-year monopoly on professional legal training in the country.
The legislation will expand access to professional legal education by allowing accredited universities and institutions to offer professional law courses, a responsibility that had for decades been reserved exclusively for the Ghana School of Law.
For years, concerns had been raised about the restrictive nature of professional legal education in Ghana, particularly the bottlenecks associated with admissions into the Ghana School of Law.
Thousands of qualified LLB graduates across the country were often unable to continue their legal training due to limited spaces and the highly competitive entrance examination system.
President Mahama, speaking after the assent on Monday, May 11, 2026, said the “law is to regulate legal education and ensure the highest standards in terms of legal education, but also to open up the space for more opportunity for legal education in Ghana. This particular act has been one that many aspiring lawyers have been looking up to.”
Prior to the passage of the Bill, the Ghana School of Law was the sole institution that admitted students into Professional Law Course for them to become qualified lawyers.
The passage of the Bill is seen as a breakthrough in the legal profession since the Ghana School of Law’s decades-old monopoly in calling people to the Ghana Bar became a subject of national debate, with students, civil society organisations and legal practitioners calling for reforms to make legal education more accessible.
It is expected that accredited universities with the requisite standards and approval from the relevant regulatory bodies will be permitted to run professional legal education programmes on their campuses.
Parliament passes Legal Education Bill to reform training, expand access
