Five prominent media practitioners and six persons with disability (PWDs) were among 824 newly qualified lawyers called to the bar in Accra yesterday, with a charge on the fresh lawyers to resist any temptation to cut corners.
The Daily Graphic’s court correspondent, Emmanuel Ebo Hawkson; broadcast journalist with the EIB Network, Serwaa Amihere; legal affairs correspondents of Media General, Joseph Ackah-Blay and Sixtus Don-Ullo, and Ghana Broadcasting Corporation’s court correspondent, Yvonne Asare-Offei, were among the spotlight attractions as the country rolled the red carpet for its new set of lawyers.
Also called to the bar was Paul Chen, a Chinese-born entrepreneur based in Kumasi.
They joined the roll of lawyers after satisfying the requirements for the practice of the profession.
The acting Chief Justice himself presented their qualifying certificates to the new lawyers.
A Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Avril Lovelace-Johnson; the Attorney-General, Dr Dominic Ayine; his deputy, Dr Justice Srem-Sai; the Director of Legal Education, Prof. Raymond Atuguba, and the Ghana Bar Association President, Efua Ghartey, took turns to hand over the lawyers’ qualifying documents to them.
The acting Chief Justice, Justice Baffoe-Bonnie, led the newly qualified lawyers to take their professional oath at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) auditorium, which was packed with friends, families and well-wishers of the applicants.
Latifa Teiya Fuseini won the student with the best all-round performance in the Professional Law Examinations.
Address
Addressing the ceremony, Justice Baffoe-Bonnie told the new lawyers that they would meet moments of doubt and temptation in their legal practice, but it was important for them to pursue truth in action rather than cutting corners.
Latifa Teiya Fuseini was awarded the Overall Best Graduating Student
“The path will not always be bright. It has never been. But justice, as we know it, is truth in action. And so, investing in forming and grooming a lawyer is an investment for a generation.
“So, I urge you all to resist the temptation to, as we say, cut corners.
The hunger to get rich quickly may come. Remember that when every other actor fails the nation, the lawyer must be the one who stands upright to restore hope.
Let the call to service and sacrifice guide your every step. For the robe you wear today and hereafter is not a symbol of privilege, but a garment of duty,” he said.
Trust
Justice Baffoe-Bonnie explained that the call to the bar was not merely a career but a calling akin to a secret trust.
He added that when Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the country’s first Prime Minister and President, founded the Ghana School of Law, his vision was to produce lawyers who would be servants of justice and not members of a privileged guild.
He added that Dr Nkrumah’s vision sought to raise a generation of lawyers who would defend human dignity, empower the weak, and fight for the freedom of the people.
Consequently, he called on the new lawyers to guard the trust entrusted to them, adding: “You will now carry the hopes of the people who look to the law as their last refuge when all else fails them. Guard that trust with everything you hold dear.
“Even more importantly, do not seek to become lawyers who only know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Instead, be lawyers who stand for the voiceless.
The law lives not in books, statutes or precedents, but in the hearts of those who believe in its power to make life better,” he added.
On challenges confronting the legal profession, Justice Baffoe-Bonnie said, from the backlog of aspiring students waiting with bated breath to secure entry into the Ghana School of
Law to the nagging questions about quality, infrastructure and the need to modernise in an era of rapid technological advancement, such challenges must not be seen as signs of decay, but bedbugs of renewal.
These challenges, he said, must illuminate the path forward.
