155 Newly qualified lawyers enrolled at the Bar

Up to 155 newly qualified lawyers have been enrolled at the Bar in Accra, with a call on them to resist the temptation of making unrealistic promises to their clients.

The Chief Justice, Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, said resisting such a temptation was better than eroding their honesty.

"The practice of law is not a business of promises. It is a discipline of judgment.

Do not guarantee outcomes you cannot control.

"A client may be disappointed by the truth, but they will be far more harmed by deception.

And you will damage yourself more by the habit of convenient lies than by the courage of telling difficult truths," Justice Baffoe-Bonnie said at yesterday’s ceremony.

The new lawyers were sworn in accordance with Section 7 of the Legal Profession Act, 1960 (Act 32).

No more mini call

The Chief Justice announced that the long-standing distinction between a “main call” and a “mini call” had been abolished.

He explained that the two calls had created an artificial distinction and an unfortunate character that subtly suggested a hierarchy where none ought to exist.

He added that henceforth, students may choose to be enrolled in either the October Call or the March Call.

“A person called to the Bar is called to the Bar — fully, finally and without qualification,” he said, stressing that entry timing — now October or March — was merely administrative and must not create a hierarchy among lawyers.

On Parliament’s passage of the Legal Education Reform Bill, 2026, the Chief Justice stressed that opportunities would be widened under the new legal regime, but that standards would be upheld.

Advise

The Chief Justice urged the new lawyers to cultivate five core qualities: integrity, diligence, respect for the court, honesty and personal discipline.

While acknowledging the heavy demands of legal practice — long hours, difficult judgments and personal sacrifice — the Chief Justice described the profession as one that offered “the opportunity to stand between power and vulnerability, between order and disorder and between right and wrong”.

He called on the new lawyers to adhere to the principles of integrity, diligence, respect, honesty and discipline.