Expert slams Legal Education Bill

Former director of the Ghana School of Law Kwaku Ansa-Asare has raised serious concerns about the Legal Education Bill before Parliament, describing it as ‘troubling’ and ‘incomplete’. Speaking to My Joy Online, he argued that the Bill fails to capture the full scope of challenges facing the training of legal professionals in Ghana. He warned that unless the Bill expands to include provisions for legal practise, it will fail to resolve the persistent problems in Ghana’s legal training regime. Ansa-Asare cautioned that a narrow focus on the academic component of legal education leaves a critical gap. He said Ghana was producing law graduates who don’t know how to perform in court as the current system was failing to produce practice-ready lawyers. The former law school director didn’t hide his dissatisfaction with Ghana’s legal training model, which he said was outdated and ineffective. ‘I agree that the system we inherited from the British is not helping us,’ he said. According to Ansa-Asare, the first three years of law in Ghana focus only on theory. The problem, he explained, is that students only begin learning actual practise during the two years at the Ghana School of Law. He argued that this fragmented approach is why so many young lawyers struggle in courtrooms immediately after being called to the Bar. Ansa-Asare believes the deep flaws in Ghana’s legal education structure will persist if the Legal Education Bill is not revised to cover the full cycle of lawyer training.

Second My Joy Online report

First My Joy Online report