The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine, has announced plans to submit a comprehensive legal education reform bill to Cabinet in September 2025, with just 14 days left in the month.
According to him, the proposed legislation aims to increase access to legal education and ensure fairness for all students seeking to pursue legal careers in the country.
Dr. Ayine revealed this development during the 2025–2026 annual conference of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), held at the S.D. Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies in Wa.
He emphasized that the reform aligns with the Ghana Government’s Reset Agenda in legal education, which seeks to modernize and democratize access to legal training.
“The legal education reform bill will be submitted soon to Cabinet, and it is designed to create a more inclusive legal training environment, opening doors for many more Ghanaians to become lawyers,” Dr. Ayine stated.
“This initiative underscores our commitment to building a justice system that reflects the diversity and aspirations of our people.”
The proposed changes to legal education include the abolishment of the Ghana School of Law’s monopoly on professional legal training, sharing that responsibility with accredited law faculties.
“In pursuit of the recent agenda of the government of His Excellency, John Dramani Mahama, I will be submitting the legal education reform bill to Cabinet this month (September 2025).
“The main objective of the bill is to widen access to legal education and to provide equality of opportunity to our countrymen and women who aspire to become lawyers.
“The bill will, hopefully, achieve this objective by introducing a one-year law practice course to be administered by accredited law faculties,” the AG said.
Dr. Ayine explained, “Upon attaining the Bachelor of Laws degree from an accredited university, a student will then enroll in a law practice course in the same university for one academic year.”
“The law practice course will focus exclusively on the subjects that are practical in nature — civil procedure, criminal procedure, advocacy, legal ethics, and the law of evidence.
“This will constitute the examinable courses to be taken at the national bar examination that will be administered by a Council for Legal Education,” the AG said.
In essence, he said, “when enacted, the bill will cut down the duration of legal education from five to four years.”
“Though the current monopoly of the Ghana School of Law will be abolished, the transitional arrangements of the bill will retain the school as a stopgap mechanism for current students and persons who have qualified to practice law in common law jurisdictions, and wish to enroll as lawyers or members of the Ghana Bar.
“When the current cohort of students complete their training in 2027, the school will adopt and teach the syllabus of the law practice course to prepare students for a national bar examination,” he said.
Source: Starrfm.com.gh
