Fresh lawyers wo krom! - writes George Bernard Shaw
The trending news in the media, especially on social media, this past week has been the annual ritual of fresh lawyers being admitted to the roll of lawyers in Ghana.
There have been countless posts on the various online portals of these ‘wannabe lawyers’ posing with friends and family and ‘strutting their stuff’.
The excitement, joy, fanfare and euphoria accompanying their ‘call to the bar’ brings to mind the catchy hit song by Atom in 2015 with the phrase yewo krom ― literally meaning “we are in town”.
Surely, fresh lawyers have hit the town! To all the newly qualified lawyers, yours truly warmly welcomes you to the noble profession.
It is not for nothing that the practice of law has been designated as the ‘noble profession’.
The term was coined in the days of yore to align with the lifelong commitment of all lawyers to advance the cause of justice, whilst still operating within the confines of the rule of law.
Lawyers were considered to be imbued with strong ethical standards in their pursuit of justice and fairness in the service of the communities they practised in.
This singular unalloyed dedication to the altar of justice and fairness has been traditionally considered a noble cause.
I can feel some of our readers raising eyebrows and quietly exclaiming in their private spaces as they read this article, “What balderdash!”
Nevertheless, your disapproval, or in some cases sheer disgust, as to why lawyers should be referred to as the noble profession, is not entirely out of place.
Like many human institutions, some bad nuts abound who unscrupulously manipulate the law against the very justice and fairness for which the profession was traditionally known.
Let me not mince my words!!
There are lawyers in the system who ply their trade whilst indulging in very unethical conduct, which invariably brings the noble profession into disrepute.
Just go through the cases that the General Legal Council sit on regularly in disciplinary hearings to get an idea of the problem.
Thankfully, I am of the conviction that such cases are few and far between.
This is because the vast majority of lawyers live up to the ideals of the noble profession.
My humble advice, for what it is worth, is to urge all newly qualified lawyers to strive hard in upholding the good name of the Bar.
This brings me to the origins of the name ‘bar’ and why freshly graduated lawyers are said to have been ‘called to the bar’.
Traditionally, lawyers practised from the Inns of Court in London; there are four Inns ― Greys, Lincoln, the Middle Temple and my own beloved Inner Temple.
Every one of these Inns of Court has a Great Hall where professional lawyers mingle and interact with students of the law.
For instance, before students qualify to become barristers, they have to eat dinner in these halls whilst drinking port as they discuss legal issues with ‘readers’ and ‘benchers’ ― professionally qualified barristers and judges.
In the 16th century, there was a wooden railing which physically separated the students from the benchers and readers.
So, the area where students sat and where the already qualified barristers sat in the hall was divided by this wooden bar.
Called
When you were ‘called to the bar’, it literally meant that you were invited to cross this bar and enter the realm of the qualified barristers ― hence the term ‘admitted to the bar’; the formal admission to the roll of lawyers to practice law.
The halls of the various Inns are grand chambers of great medieval architectural grandeur.
The Hall in Inner Temple is a thing of beauty (but maybe I’m biased!), as is the Temple Church, which originally the Knights Templars used as a base during the crusades and is modelled on the design of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
The bar, and certainly its origins, is steeped in rich history, but space and time will not allow me to do justice to it in a column, so we will leave it here.
However, as we return to the topic of the week ― the ‘call to the bar’ ― I, in congratulating all the newly qualified lawyers, hereby remind them that by crossing the bar to become honourable members of the noble profession, I hope that in practice they will be guided by the unparalleled virtues of justice, fairness and above all service to the people they represent and uphold true ethical standards.
The writer is a lawyer.
E-mail: georgebshaw1@gmail.com
