Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, is of the view that practicing law must not be considered a right, stating it is a privilege.
He stated it comes with a moral obligation and legal duty practitioners need to uphold to ensure the dignity of the profession.
To him, it is only when practitioners maintain the highest standards of ethics that law will continue to be a noble profession.
Mr Dame sounded this clarion call during the induction ceremony of new executives of the Ghana Bar Association.
“Mr President and new executives, you owe a duty to drive home the point that the practice of law is not a right, it is a privilege.
“Along with it comes a moral obligation and a legal duty to uphold the dignity of the profession to ensure that the privileged call to the bar is not abused through unprincipled and disreputable conduct,” Mr Dame charged.
The Attorney General indicated the ethics of the job which is supposed to be an utmost priority is declining.
“Standards of practice have declined to their lowest depths, and I speak from experience of what I witnessed in the Supreme Court last week in the conduct of some lawyers in certain cases that they handled.
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“Ethics is virtually thrown to the dogs in the dishonourable quest of some lawyers to win a case,” he bemoaned.
The timing of his comments is even more significant amid the saga of the 499 ‘failed’ law students’ and calls for reform and expansion of Ghana’s legal education system.
Some 143 students are currently in court, challenging their denial of admission into the Ghana Law School.
The students claimed in their writ on October 22, 2021, that their fundamental human rights have been violated by the regulatory body.
They are, therefore, praying the Court to compel the Ghana School of Law to admit them into the institution, having met the required pass mark (50%) in the entrance exam.
Listen to the Attorney General in the audio attached above:
