Vice President of the International Court of Arbitration Ndanga Kamau says the youth should be given the opportunity to practice and engage in the legal profession of the country.
The Chief Justice of Ghana Sophia Akufo recently indicated that she will not encourage mass production of lawyers in the country which according to her poses grave danger to the judicial system.
But speaking at the International Chamber of Commerce Ghana Arbitration day, Miss Ndanga said it is important for senior members of the profession to allow the youth to acquire the requisite skills to meet international arbitration standards.
“The potential for youth to contribute to development across the continent is unexplored. We haven’t yet taken the time to really understand those numbers, particularly in the legal field that keeps changing. In this resolution, we see changes, whether it’s from technological developments, or different ways of doing things that are distinct from domestic litigation. The youth are agile in being able to adopt those new ways of resolving disputes.”
“So every jurisdiction must have the flexibility to decide what’s best for it. Looking at a more regional level, every country in Africa should be thinking about how it develops its own use and equip its young lawyers to be able to do this kind of cross border transactional and disputes work,” she stated.
In recent times, there have been agitations at the Ghana School of Law over the mass failure of students in the Bar Examination and entrance exams.
This followed the Chief Justice, Justice Sophia Akuffo’s caution to the General Legal Council to be wary of the mass number of students admitted into the Ghana School of Law.
According to her, this does not produce the calibre of lawyers that the country needs.
US-based Ghanaian legal practitioner, Professor Kwaku Asare who is also keen about the youth being given the chance to venture into the legal profession said that the GLC must not restrict the youth from pursuing their dreams.
He sated that: “Their core duty is to provide an opportunity for people with LLB to pursue their professional education but that is not what is happening here. They are not providing an opportunity; they are actually denying people the opportunity to pursue legal education, so as a matter of law, what they are doing is problematic.”