A Senior Law Lecturer at Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Clement Akapame, has described Ghana’s newly passed legal education reforms as a significant step forward, while cautioning that more work is needed to strengthen the country’s legal training system.
He said the passage of the Legal Education Reform Bill, 2025, represents a major breakthrough after decades of debate over access to professional legal education in Ghana.
According to him, the reforms are expected to ease barriers for law graduates seeking admission into professional training programmes.
Mr Akapame, however, argued that the legislation should have gone further by addressing other aspects of legal training, including the development of paralegals, support legal staff, pupilage arrangements and post-professional training structures.
He maintained that legal education reform should not be limited solely to the training of lawyers, but should cover the wider legal services sector.
Speaking on Channel One TV on Wednesday, May 13, Mr Akapame said, “It’s great that we’ve taken this leap to reform legal education,” but stressed that implementation would determine the success of the new framework.
He also raised concerns over possible ambiguities in defining what constitutes a law programme, as well as potential overlaps between the General Legal Council and institutions responsible for legal education regulation.
The GIMPA law lecturer further called for a phased implementation of the reforms to allow stakeholders to address emerging challenges and provide clarity for students and institutions.
He expressed hope that policymakers would offer further guidance in the coming days to ensure smooth enforcement of the new legal education framework.
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Source: www.myjoyonline.com