Former Member of Parliament for Anyaa Sowutuom, Dickson Adomako Kissi, has called for stricter Bar examinations under Ghana’s new legal education reforms, arguing that the quality of lawyers produced should remain the ultimate test of the country’s professional law training system.
Speaking on Breakfast Daily on Tuesday, May 12, Adomako Kissi welcomed the government’s decision to reform legal education, stating that opening up professional law training to more institutions could improve access and expand opportunities for prospective lawyers.
According to him, the focus of the reforms should not only be on increasing the number of institutions offering professional legal training, but also on ensuring that standards at the Bar remain high enough to assess the competence of graduates.
“I’m no lawyer, but I welcome changes in the professional institutions in this country. Borrowing from some of my experience, once there are many good schools, the true litmus test will be those who pass the Bar,” he stated.
He stressed that the Bar examination must remain a credible benchmark capable of determining whether students have received adequate legal training, regardless of the institution they attended.
President John Dramani Mahama on Monday, May 11, assented to the Legal Education Reform Bill, 2025, ending the 66-year monopoly of the Ghana School of Law over professional legal training.
The new law allows accredited institutions to offer professional law courses and is expected to widen access to legal education following years of concerns over limited admissions, restrictive entry requirements and the highly competitive nature of the Ghana School of Law entrance examinations.
