A lawyer and advocate for legal education reform, Professor Kwaku Asare wants the Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo to focus on the efficiency of the courts in Ghana and allow the universities to deliver law education to students.
According to him the universities are the best bet in training lawyers and delivering legal education.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Tuesday he said if the bar examination is diagnostic enough, it will ensure that only quality students are admitted into law schools.
“I will suggest that the Chief Justice should focus on enhancing the efficiency of the court and allow the universities to use their comparative advantage in delivering legal education and training lawyers then we can agree on some form of bar examination that will be administered to all law graduates and those who pass. If the bar examination is diagnostic enough it will pick up the high-quality lawyers, ” he said.
Addressing the Bench, Bar and Faculty Conference at the Labadi Beach Hotel on Tuesday on the theme “the Changing Landscape in the Law – the Judge, the Lawyer and the Academic”, Justice Sophia Akuffo, said the mass production of lawyers without efficient control will not happen under her watch.
Justice Sophia Akuffo further stated that “those of you lawyers and those of you lecturers who are busy advocating free scale, mass admissions, into the professional law course, and mass production of lawyers, be careful what you wish for”.
She pointed out that “so long as I have anything to do with it, it won’t happen. Just like you can’t mass produce doctors and surgeons, Ghanaians must not have mass-produced lawyers imposed on them.”
According to her, the mass production of lawyers poses a great threat to the people of the country who would require the services of a good lawyer in their lifetime.
Prof. Kwaku Asare is one of the leading campaigners for the reform of legal education in Ghana.