President John Dramani Mahama has signed the Legal Education Reform Bill, 2025 into law, marking a major overhaul of Ghana’s legal education system and ending the long-standing monopoly of the Ghana School of Law.
The new law introduces sweeping reforms aimed at widening access to legal training and decentralising professional legal education across the country.
Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine, described the development as a major step towards equal opportunity in the legal profession, adding that the law is now ready for implementation following Presidential assent.
The legislation establishes a new Council for Legal Education and Training to regulate legal education and set curriculum standards across accredited institutions.
A key feature of the reform is the transfer of professional legal training from the Ghana School of Law to accredited universities, which will now run a Law Practice Training Course for aspiring lawyers.
According to the Bill, the new training model will focus on practical skills, stating that “the Law Practice Training Course will consist mainly of clinical legal education that emphasises the acquisition of practical lawyering skills over theoretical legal education.”
Under the new system, holders of Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degrees will be required to enrol in accredited university programmes before sitting for a National Bar Examination.
The reform is expected to address longstanding concerns over limited access to legal education and the centralised control of professional training under the existing Legal Profession Act, 1960 (Act 32).
Source: Starrfm.com.gh
