Attorney General and Minister for Justice Dominic Ayine says the government will immediately begin implementing Ghana’s new legal education reforms following President John Mahama’s assent to the Legal Education Bill 2026.
Speaking at a post-signing press conference on Tuesday, Dr Ayine announced that the first major step would be the dissolution of the General Legal Council and the establishment of a new Council for Legal Education and Training to oversee legal education in the country.
“Implementation will begin without delay,” Dr Ayine said after confirming that President Mahama had signed the bill into law.
According to the Attorney General, the new council will immediately assume responsibility for regulating and accrediting institutions that intend to run the Law Practice Course for LLB graduates seeking qualification to the Bar.
“This is a much-anticipated reform law that is supposed to radically reform legal education to create equality of opportunity for persons aspiring to be lawyers in this country,” he stated.
The reforms are expected to significantly reshape Ghana’s legal education system, which for decades has faced criticism over limited access to professional legal training.
Under the previous arrangement, the General Legal Council supervised professional legal education largely through the Ghana School of Law, where limited admission spaces left hundreds of qualified LLB graduates unable to continue their legal training each year.
The new law seeks to widen access by allowing multiple accredited institutions to offer the Law Practice Course under the supervision of the newly created council.
Dr Ayine disclosed that both the establishment of the council and the accreditation of institutions are expected to be completed within the year.
He added that the government would provide financial backing for the reforms in the 2027 budget, which Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson is expected to present to Parliament later this year.
For years, legal education reforms have been a major subject of public debate, with law students, civil society groups, and sections of the legal fraternity calling for a more accessible and transparent system.
Observers say the effectiveness of the new framework will largely depend on how quickly the new council is constituted and how rigorously it regulates institutions seeking accreditation.
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