Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Dr. Dominic Ayine has unveiled plans to dismantle the decades-old Ghana School of Law admissions system in favour of a new, decentralised national bar exam.
The announcement, made during the Government Accountability Series in Accra on Monday, signals the government’s intent to open up legal practice to a broader base of qualified law graduates—many of whom have historically been locked out of the profession despite holding LLB degrees.
“We are shifting from exclusion to inclusion,” Dr. Ayine declared. “Our aim is to ensure that all qualified LLB holders have a clear and merit-based path to becoming lawyers.”
Under the proposed reform, LLB graduates from accredited institutions will undergo a one-year Bar Practice Programme at their respective universities. After that, all candidates will sit for a uniform national bar exam—effectively replacing the current, highly competitive admissions process at the Ghana School of Law.
“The bill will abolish the Ghana School of Law system,” Dr. Ayine confirmed, likening the new framework to the process used by the Institute of Chartered Accountants. “Universities will be allowed to provide practical legal education internally, and successful students will write a national bar exam.”
The change comes after years of frustration and protests from aspiring lawyers who, despite earning qualifying degrees, have repeatedly failed to gain admission into the bottlenecked law school system. Critics have long argued that the current structure is outdated, elitist, and unnecessarily restrictive.
The new legal education bill, which contains the full details of the reform, is expected to be submitted to Cabinet in August. According to Dr. Ayine, the final draft was handed over to his deputy, Dr. Justice Srem-Sai, for review just a day before the announcement.
If passed, the reforms could mark the most significant overhaul of Ghana’s legal training system in a generation—removing longstanding barriers and making the journey to the bar a little less narrow, and a lot more fair.
