Former Ghana Bar Association (GBA) President Yaw Acheampong Boafo has alleged that Ghana is currently training lawyers in a manner that is contrary to the law.
According to Mr Boafo, recent reforms in legal education were pushed largely by individuals outside the existing system, resulting in those within the system being sidelined during the reform process.
Yaw Acheampong Boafo argued that although legislation has created a statutory body to oversee legal education, the body has not yet been formally established.
He claimed that the Chief Justice and the Attorney General have instead assumed powers that should ordinarily be exercised by the yet-to-be-established body.
“Currently, we are training lawyers contrary to the law. It is not about disagreement with the current system. You can do the right thing the wrong way,” he said.
Mr Boafo further alleged that a pre-bar course had been introduced and institutions accredited without the necessary legal foundation.
“The push for reforms came from people outside the system, and they made those within the system enemies of the process,” he stated.
The former GBA President further warned that training lawyers outside the framework of the law could create a troubling precedent.
“Now, when we start training lawyers illegally, what we’ve told them is that it is convenient for you to displace the law,” he warned.
He further attributed the situation to what he described as the exclusion of experienced stakeholders from the reform process.
“Those within the system were seen as enemies of the state. So, when the law was being reformed, those in the system were sidelined, and people sitting in Florida woke up one morning and, writing in big English, were telling us how to run the system,” he added.
Meanwhile, some months ago, President John Dramani Mahama signed the Legal Education Reform Bill (2025) into law, following the Parliament of Ghana’s official passage of the bill.
John Mahama’s assent to the bill ends the Ghana School of Law’s 66-year monopoly, opening the door for more accredited universities to offer professional law programmes.
President Mahama, signing the bill into law on Monday, stated, “Regulate legal education and ensure the highest standards in terms of legal education, but also to open up a space for more opportunities for legal education in Ghana,” he said.
“This particular act has been one that many aspiring lawyers have been looking up to. So it’ll be fine.”
Since 1958, the Ghana School of Law has been the sole institution authorised to run the professional law course required for admission to the Ghana Bar.
With the new legislation, universities that meet accreditation requirements will now be eligible to run professional legal training programmes.
The reform is expected to ease admission pressure, expand opportunities for law graduates, and improve training quality, while ensuring strict regulation and consistent standards are maintained across all institutions through strengthened oversight nationwide.
Meanwhile, Dominic Ayine, the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, has announced the government will immediately begin implementing Ghana’s new legal education reforms.
The Attorney General made this known after President John Mahama assented to the Legal Education Bill 2026.
According to Dominic Ayine, the first major step would be the dissolution of the General Legal Council to establish a new Council for Legal Education and Training to oversee legal education.
Speaking at a post-signing press conference on Tuesday, Dominic Ayine disclosed, “Implementation will begin without delay”.
“This is a much-anticipated reform law that is supposed to radically reform legal education to create equality of opportunity for persons aspiring to be lawyers in this country,” he stated.
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