President John Dramani Mahama has signed the Legal Education Reform Bill, 2025 into law, paving the way for major changes in Ghana’s legal education system and ending the Ghana School of Law’s long-standing monopoly over professional legal training.
Speaking after assenting to the bill on Monday, May 11, President Mahama said the new law is aimed at improving legal education while creating more opportunities for aspiring lawyers.
“The law is to regulate legal education and ensure the highest standards in terms of legal education, but also to open up the space for more opportunity for legal education in Ghana. This particular act has been one that many aspiring lawyers have been looking up to,” he said.
The new law is expected to expand access to professional legal education by allowing accredited universities and institutions to offer professional law courses, a role that had been reserved exclusively for the Ghana School of Law for more than six decades.
For years, concerns had been raised over the limited number of students admitted into the Ghana School of Law, with many qualified LLB graduates unable to continue their legal training because of limited spaces and the highly competitive entrance examination system.
Under the previous system, the Ghana School of Law remained the only institution authorised to provide the Professional Law Course required for students to qualify as lawyers and be called to the Bar in Ghana.
The institution’s monopoly, which lasted for about 66 years, had repeatedly sparked national debate, with students, civil society groups, and legal practitioners calling for reforms to make legal education more accessible.
The passage and signing of the Legal Education Reform Bill is therefore being seen by many as a major step towards addressing those long-standing challenges.
With the law now in force, accredited universities and institutions that meet the required standards and obtain approval from the appropriate regulatory bodies will be allowed to run professional legal education programmes in Ghana.
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