President John Dramani Mahama has signed the Legal Education Reform Bill, 2025, into law, marking a historic shift in Ghana’s legal education system and ending the 66-year monopoly of the Ghana School of Law over professional legal training.
The new legislation, widely regarded as one of the most significant reforms in Ghana’s legal sector since independence, opens the door for accredited universities to offer professional legal education programmes previously reserved exclusively for the Ghana School of Law.
Under the new framework, a newly established Council for Legal Education and Training will oversee standards, accreditation, and curriculum development across institutions offering professional law programmes. The law also introduces a unified National Bar Examination, which all law graduates from approved institutions must pass before being called to the Ghana Bar.
For decades, the Ghana School of Law remained the sole institution authorized to provide the professional law course required for legal practice in Ghana. However, the centralized system faced growing criticism over limited admission capacity, difficult entrance examinations, and the inability of many qualified LLB graduates to gain access to professional legal training.
Legal education advocates and reform supporters have welcomed the new law, arguing that it will expand access to legal education, reduce long-standing barriers to entry, and decentralize professional legal training while maintaining academic and professional standards through the national examination system.
The Legal Education Reform Bill was passed by Parliament in March 2026 before receiving presidential assent from President Mahama today.
Observers say the reform could significantly reshape the future of legal education in Ghana by increasing opportunities for aspiring lawyers and modernizing the country’s legal training framework.
Story By: Eric Boateng
